A Shinobi Halloween
by King Hawke
Summary: when buffy characters dress up as ninja for halloween, and Ethan's in town, things get interesting.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Buffy. If I did, I wouldn't need to write this! And, my coauthor/editor AlphaBeta helped me write this. After this, no more disclaimers! and this story takes place after the first Naruto movie, once they change into their costumes.

**One month before Halloween; Boston, Massachusetts, police station:**

"Hey, Jack!" I'm heading home. Another late night, huh?" the detective says as he passes his fellow detective's desk.

The other detective nods solemnly, "We got another bad one today, but it could have been worse, I suppose."

The first detective walks over to the desk and puts down his cup of coffee, "How so?"

"Well, Bill, some officers found a beat-up girl the other night while on patrol," Jack explains while glancing over the report. "They saw how young she was and offered to give her a ride home since it is dangerous to be walking those streets alone at night." He takes a sip of Bill's coffee absently, oblivious to the other detective's glare. Jack continues, his eyes never leaving the report, "Her face and arms were covered with bruises. The officers were able to coax an address from her when they asked where she lived. They found drugs, alcohol, and a drunken boyfriend of the mother at the house. Child Services were called in, and she is currently in protective custody." He lays down the report and looks up at his coworker, finally noticing the glare. "What?"

"Jack," Bill says with a deceptive calmness, "You did it again." Jack stares at him blankly. "The coffee!" Realization slowly crosses his face. "That's right, Jack, My coffee."

He looks at the coffee than at his friend, "Sorry! It's a habit!"

"So break the habit or buy yourself a cup of coffee!" Bill demands angrily.

Jack shrugs sheepishly, "I will do my best."

"Anyways, here is the interesting part of the report!" Jack says quickly, hoping to change the subject. "The welfare workers are going to put her in a new program to see if they, in this case, she, can get back to normal faster, by putting her in an entirely new environment so she can grow up and have a normal life, hopefully."

Bill raises an eyebrow curiously, sitting on the edge of the desk, "So where are they sending her?"

"A small town in California," Jack replies slowly, "I believe it is called Sunnydale."

Standing up from the desk, Bill inquires, "Does the girl have a name? Or do I have to guess?" He picks up his cup of coffee to leave.

Jack puts down his report. "They say her name is Faith."

End Prologue


	2. Chapter 2

For my fans: this is fanfic, anything goes. But, I update depending on how many reviews I get telling me to keep going! So review!

**One week before Halloween; Sunnydale's Bus stop:**

Rupert Giles sighs impatiently while checking his watch for the fifth time. The Sunnydale bus is running late again, but this is the first time that he has been the one waiting for it.

He thinks back to one week ago when he had received a letter from an old friend whom he has been corresponding with off and on since his wild days as "the Ripper". Her letter requested that he look after her niece because she feared for the girl's safety and sanity. When no proof could be found of misconduct in the home but the girl was still terrified of her family, the aunt sneaked the girl onto a bus and sent her on her way.

Giles naturally felt nervous at the thought of looking after the young woman, with his only experiences in dealing with young women coming from Buffy but accepted for old time's sake.

Finally, to his relief, the bus appears down the road. It pulled up to the bus stop and the door slides open. Giles' eyes carefully compare the exiting passengers with the picture he was given. The last person to step out of the bus is her. She looks around, clenching her small backpack's straps tightly.

The anxious look her in her eyes are easily read when her eyes meet his but she relaxes when he extends his hand. "I am Mr. Rupert Giles, Miss…" he trails off questioningly.

She looks him over, taking in his stiff brown jacket and glasses. Smiling shyly, she pulls her long golden hair behind her ears. The girl takes his hand, shakes it gently, and replies, "My name is Tara."

"What a beautiful name," he says encouragingly. "Well then, Miss Tara, let's go home." She nods nervously but quickly follows him as he walks towards his car.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 1: Costumes

**One Day before Halloween: Sunnydale High School**

"Miss Summers!" Principal Snyder calls as Buffy tries to hide behind Willow and Xander.

She peeks out from behind them and forces a smile onto her face, "Principal Snyder! I did not realize you were here!"

The small troll of a man approaches the Scoobies with a pencil and a pad of paper. He smirks evilly, "During Halloween, you delinquents undoubtedly run around egging houses and causing mischief, but not this year!" The three friends gulp worriedly, causing Snyder's smirk to grow. "This Halloween you three will be escorting kids around for trick-or-treating."

Xander protests, "But, Principal Snyder–"

"No buts, Harris! Sign the paper!" he snaps.

Willow glances at the title on the paper and hesitantly points out, "The sheet says 'volunteers'…"

"Consider yourselves volunteered!" he replies with a grin at their dismayed countenances. "Either sign the sheet or get detention!"

The trio reluctantly sigh, "Yes, Principal Snyder." The demented principal watches with delight as they sign their names while doing their best not to look miserable. The popular drama queen Cordelia snickers at their misfortune from down the hall.

Snyder hears her and yells, "Do you find something amusing, Miss Chase?"

"Of course not, Principal Snyder! I was just thinking about how nice people are for volunteering to watch the kids this Halloween," she exclaims quickly.

His smirk only widens at her reply. "In that case, you can be a 'nice person' this Halloween! Rich kids like you have no sense of responsibility! Sign the sheet." Cordelia tries in vain to protest but is silenced by Snyder's glare. She unhappily signs the paper. As the teens start to walk towards their respective classes, Snyder proclaims, "Group costumes! Since you troublemakers are in this together, you can share a theme! That includes you too, Miss Chase! And, for the trick-or-treating, No Talking to the kids! They are bad enough without your corrupting influence!" Cackling at how depressed they look, he strolls off with a wicked grin plastered on his face.

Xander puts his arms over Willow's and Buffy's shoulders and announces, "I know just the place to get costumes! A new shop opened up recently called Ethan's!"

Buffy shrugs off his arm and smiles a little, "We can check it out after school, Xander."

Xander calls to Cordelia with mock cheerfulness, "Hey Cordy, meet us out in front after school so we can go to Ethan's! You have to come for us to get theme costumes!"

The young woman fumes at his declaration and mutters, "There goes my plans at Partytown!" She snatches her books, slams her locker shut, and stomps towards class.

"Cordelia! Wait for me!" a high voice screeches.

She sighs loudly and grumbles, "What did I do to deserve this?" Quickly forcing a smile, Cordelia turns to face her new companion. "Hello, Harmony!" she says with fake enthusiasm.

"Are the plans still on for Party Town after school?" inquires the airhead as they walk together.

Cordelia frowns, "No. Hitler-wanna-be Snyder drafted me into going to Halloween trick-or-treating with the elementary kids. If that were not bad enough, I have to dress up like the most unpopular dweebs at a lame shop called Ethan's! It is probably a dump!" She sighs again. "We will have to talk later. It is almost time for class to start." Cordelia strolls into the classroom.

Harmony stands outside the class while attempting to think. After a moment she shrugs and smiles. "Then we will change the costumes! No big deal," she says out loud to herself, earning a few weird looks from passing classmates.

**Ethan's Shop after School:**

The bell dings as the Scoobies and a loudly whining Cordelia enter the shop. A brown-haired man comes from the back of the shop. "Can I help you? I am Ethan, proprietor of this establishment," the man asks with a distinctly British accent.

Xander immediately asks, "What kind of costumes do you sell here? We need theme based costumes."

Ethan glances over the small group. He takes note of Buffy's bored stare, Willow's blushing as she glances discreetly at Xander, and Cordelia's annoyed glare. He rubs his hands together and replies, "I believe that I have a few choices you might be interested in." Brushing off his dusty brown shirt, he nods to each section as he mentions them. "In the far right corner, we have the 18th century dresses and suits. In the far left corner are the ninja costumes from some anime show. Across the right wall are the superhero costumes, and on the opposite wall are the Star Wars costumes. Everything else comes from individual shows and cannot be easily grouped together. If you need any assistance, I will be at the counter."  
Buffy and Willow wander to the 18th century corner. "Do you think Angel would like this?" Buffy asks while holding up a poofy green dress.

Willow nods slowly and answers carefully, "The dress looks really good on you Buffy, but those dresses have low-necklines! I don't do low necklines!"

"You will be fine, Wills. Besides, Xander will like it," suggests the slayer teasingly.

"Actually," Xander interjects from behind them, "While Wills would look great, there is no way that you can get Cordy or me into that kind of stuff!" At their disappointed looks, he continues, "Dead Boy hates those dresses because it reminds him of the 18th century ditzes. He mentioned it once while telling me a story about back then."

Meanwhile, Cordelia looks at the Princess Leia outfit and wig. "Sort of cute," she admits quietly. The trio walks over to where she is. Buffy scans the costumes briefly and states, "Not a chance, Cordy. There is only one girl costume in this section, and you are holding it."

"My name is Cordelia, not Cordy!" she replies indignantly."

Xander intervenes, "Girls! Girls! Let's keep looking around." They trail to the Superhero section. "No way am I wearing spandex!" all three girls say at the same time. Xander appears slightly disappointed but wisely keeps his mouth shut. They keep moving until they stop at the ninja section.

The boy's eyes light up instantly as it registers where he has seen these costumes before. "Is he drooling?" asks Cordelia with disgust in her voice.

Willow stares at him curiously, "Yes, he is definitely drooling!"

Xander snaps out of his stupor and looks around blankly. "You were saying something, Wills?"

"What is so cool about these costumes?" Buffy bluntly inquires.

Xander exclaims with excitement, "These are ninjas from Naruto, the anime show!"

"And?" Cordelia frowns.

"These guys are not just ninja; they are super ninja!" he explains loudly.

Buffy asks, "What is your point?"

"Buff, these guys are in a whole league above you!"

"Yeah, right," snorts the blonde Slayer unbelievingly.

"By the time these ninja are twelve years old, they can jump from rooftop to rooftop without breaking a sweat!" Xander says animatedly. Buffy gives him a look that makes it clear that she does not believe him. "The average ninja's speed at least matches yours, not to mention their hand-to-hand combat and weapons training rival your skills. And that is just the people who just became Genin, the lowest rank of ninja!"

At this bold proclamation, an intrigued expression crosses Buffy's face. Willow looks awed, and Cordelia…Cordelia just looks bored.

"Example 1: this costume over here is Temari!" he says as he pulls a costume off the hook. "She is known as the Wind Mistress of the Sand Village because of her mastery over the wind, which she uses with her fan. The resulting attacks can dice up trees like a knife can dice a tomato! Imagine what that would do to a person or whatever you were fighting! She's smart, tough, and very well respected. She is Powerful!"

The dark-haired young man hands Buffy the costume with the giant fan. Buffy weighs the fan on her palm and grins, "Now this I like! If anything I can swat things with it since it is real metal."

"Willow, you can go as Sakura, the semi-confident super strong brainiac!" Xander says as he throws the costume into her arms. "It even covers most of your skin and her hair is a shade of red! Just read the info card on the sleeve."

Before the drama queen can object, Xander continues, "And Cordelia!" He looks over the costumes briefly. "You can go as TenTen."

"TenTen?" mouths Cordelia silently as Xander pulls the costume from the wall hook. "You'll be her!" declares Xander, "She is called the Weapon Mistress of the Leaf Village. Most consider her to be an expert in weaponry, able to hit her target 99.9% of the time with long-range weapons. Plus, her hair color is the same as yours. I think you would look good in her Chinese-style fighting outfit."

Cordelia critically analyzes the outfit, "Well, it does not look too bad, I guess."

"And I will go as…" Xander quickly looks over the costumes until his eyes fall upon a certain blue and white outfit, "Sasuke Uchiha, the last of the mighty Uchiha clan!"

"So he was good?" asks Buffy curiously.

Xander explains, "He was #1 in his class and a genius!" His eyes drift to the price tag and widen drastically.

Ethan says from behind Xander, nobody having noticed that he had left the counter, "Is there a problem, young man? You seem to have found your desired costume."

The teenager jumps and tells him loudly, "Do not do that around here! Sneaking up on people in this town is very bad!!"

"My apologies," Ethan replies respectfully as the girls start to notice his accent.

Xander gazes at the evil price tag sadly, "I have about twelve dollars, and this costume is twenty dollars."

"Let's make a bargain then!" Ethan declares. The youth stares at him in confusion. "I will sell you this costume for twelve dollars, and I will even give you a discount on all the costumes on one condition."

Cordelia scowls skeptically, "So what is this condition?"

Her unease grows at the same rate of Ethan's smile. "Just tell your friends to visit here!"

"That won't be a problem, Mr. Ethan," Willow replies gratefully.

"Just Ethan will do nicely, Miss," he answers as he walks behind the counter.

Willow pauses and the Slayer asks, "What is it, Willow?"

"With the money saved from the discounts, we can afford one more costume for…" she trails off.

"For Angel! Wills, you are a genius!" she gives her best friend a hug. "Now he won't feel left out and can hang around us during the trick-or-treating!"

Xander overhears them and states flatly, "Deadboy is coming?"

"Angel," Buffy corrects him with a glare.

Cordelia ignores them, buys her costume, and leaves the shop.

Handing Xander his receipt after his own purchase, Ethan comments idly, "So this Angel character, why do you call him 'deadboy'?"

"He has the personality of a corpse," states Xander unhappily. Ethan leans over the counter and whispers in Xander's ear. A grin slowly crosses the teenager's face and he goes back to the ninja section. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye that Willow easily recognizes, he pulls three costumes off the wall. The tags on each info card say: Jiraiya the Legendary Toad Sannin; Kakashi the Copy-nin; Orochimaru the Snake Sannin.

Xander smirks, "Jiraiya is legendary and is known for being able to summon giant toads for battle!"

Buffy glances over the costume, "I doubt he will agree to wear such a big wig."

"Then how about this one?" he says, holding up Orochimaru's costume. "This guy can summon snakes and is a genius!"

She stares at the bow-shaped belt. "Purple is not his color. That costume is just too girly!"

"True," Xander reluctantly concedes, "Than how about this one? He is a high-ranking ninja that other nations order to retreat from or kill on sight! Deadboy might like the mask too! Nobody would recognize him."

Willow says, staring suspiciously at her childhood friend, "Why are you trying to be so helpful?"

"Just saving time on picking his costume! Guys know what guys would not mind wearing. Besides, Mrs. Summers is making cookies tonight, remember? This costume looks fairly normal considering the options," Xander replies innocently. Willow and Buffy glance at each other, at the other costumes available, and agree with Xander, despite any hidden motives he might have.

Ethan says while checking the price tag and taking their money, "Make sure your friends are told about the shop, and that they wear all of their costume! I would hate for such fine costumes to go to waste."

"We will!" calls Xander over his shoulder as he walks out the door with Buffy.

Willow pauses in the doorway and looks around the store slowly, feeling someone watching her. After a few moments, she shrugs and mutters, "I must be getting paranoid."

As the young red-head exits the store, and a teenage boy steps out from behind a rack of costumes. He stares after her before briefly examining the ninja costumes. "We are both red-heads and have short names," he states when he notices Gaara's costume. He picks up the costume and a sandy brown gourd full of sand, taking them to the counter.

Ethan smiles while handing him a receipt, "Enjoy your Halloween, young sir. You are going to love your costume." The name on the receipt is: Oz.

Having parted ways with the Scoobies, Cordelia strolls down the sidewalk towards home. The well-known ditz Harmony sees her walking past and exclaims, "So, what are we going to the Halloween party as?"

Cordelia hides an annoyed sigh and stops to talk with her. "I am going as a ninja, though my outfit is tolerable."

"Did you get it at Partytown?" Harmony asks cheerfully.

The other girl says hesitantly, "A new costume shop opened recently. It is called Ethan's. I have to go. Talk to you later, Harmony!" She walks away, thankful when the blonde does not follow.

Harmony stares after her and smiles. "Cool! I have never been a ninja before! This should be fun!" She strolls merrily along to Ethan's shop. Ethan watches her come in and offers to help her find a costume.

"I want, like, a cool ninja outfit!" Harmony says. "But it has to make me look skinny and go with my gorgeous blonde hair!"

He thinks, 'Oh, an idiot! That makes things easier.' Outwardly, he smiles, "I think I have something for you. Please follow me." Ethan walks to the ninja section, takes down Ino's costume, and holds it up to Harmony. "It looks very flattering on you! The purple really emphasizes your hair," he compliments.

Spinning around with the costume a few times while examining herself in a full-length mirror, Harmony says, "I'll take it! Now I can be fashionable like Cordelia and look amazing!" Ethan raises an eyebrow but says nothing while she purchases the costume. On her way out of the store, she bumps into the dark-haired girl Faith. "Watch it, ugly! I just bought this costume," she proclaims indignantly.

Faith glares at her and retorts, "Get over it, blonde." Harmony gasps at being talked to like that. Unable to come up with a response, she huffs and marches away, much to Ethan's barely concealed relief.

"Can I help you, Miss?" Ethan asks with a friendly smile. Faith shakes her head and slowly roams the store. Faith searches through each section carefully, eliminating each one until she comes to the Naruto section. She almost moves on when Anko's costume catches her eye. Her desire to be noticed and air of self reliance both are found in the provocative yet dangerous-looking costume. It comes with a small tri-spiral neck tattoo. She carefully brings it to the counter, making sure that she does not drop anything or wrinkle it.

"Found a kindred spirit, have you?" Ethan inquires with interest. Faith shrugs feigning indifference. She buys the costume and quickly leaves the too curious eyes of the British salesman.

The girl hurries down the street with her newly acquired costume held close to her chest. Jonathan, Andrew, and Warren argue over which anime show should be the theme of their costumes. Andrew spots her costume as she rushes past. "Is that Anko's coat?" he wonders out loud.

The nerds stop walking and stare after her at her barely visible costume. Jonathan announces after a few seconds, "Yes! It is Anko's coat! Where did she get that?"

"The only costume shop on this street is there! She must have bought it there!" Warren says excitedly. Anyone passing by who blinks almost misses the three blurs that explode into Ethan's shop. The door swings open and a gust of wind blows into the building. Ethan glances up to see the trio staring eagerly at him.

He clears his throat and says slowly, "Can I help you, gentlemen?" Ethan halts the boys from talking all at once by pointing to Jonathan. "You talk first."

"Do you have any Naruto costumes?" he asks with barely restrained excitement. Seeing Ethan's blank gaze, he clarifies, "Anime ninja costumes."

The British shopkeeper's face lights up with recognition. "Ah yes! Those have been quite popular today. They are on the right corner wall, complete with ninja tools. Call if you have any questions." The nerds are already at the corner, rambling in fast nerd speech which even the most skilled linguists have trouble understanding. "But I doubt you will need any help," he finishes with a sigh.

"So many choices…but what to pick!" says Andrew enthusiastically.

Warren grins while lifting Orochimaru's costume from the wall. "Remove the snake Sannin from your list because it is mine! He is a genius!"

"True," Jonathan admits, "but Neji is the Hyuga clan prodigy! Given enough time he could get strong enough to beat Orochimaru! Besides, if I were Neji he would be able to defeat someone as strong as Naruto right now!" Warren opens his mouth to argue, but Andrew cuts him off by holding up the familiar Naruto Uzumaki.

Andrew interjects quickly, "Naruto is way stronger than Neji and even stood a chance against Kabuto and any snake summons that the snake Sannin sent his way!"

"Foxy loser!" declares Warren.

Jonathan retorts, "Girly snake man!"

Andrew, not wanting to be left out, says loudly, "Hyuga snob!"

Ethan hurries from the counter as the argument almost turns physical. "Gentlemen! Have you made your choice on your preferred costume?"

The trio glares heatedly at each other but nod simultaneously. They buy their costumes and leave the shop while nerd babbling the entire time. "Kids these days," mutters Ethan tiredly. "They make more chaos than any mage could!"

Meanwhile, the Scoobies arrive at the Summer's residence. Walking in through the front door, the young Slayer yells, "I'm home! Xander and Willow are with me!"

"3...2…1…" Xander counts down very quietly. A small blur launches itself down the stairs, across the floor, and into his arms.

"Xander, you're here!" the girl screams excitedly as she glomps him.

"Hey there, Dawn-patrol!" he replies with a grin as he catches her. The two teenage girls cringe at their volume. He gives her a quick brotherly kiss on the forehead and inquires playfully, "Did you have any adventures today?" Dawn nods happily and tells him a story about saving the world from evil pickles. Xander listens with rapt attention.

Joyce smiles as she walks in from the kitchen. She waits until her daughter finishes the story. "Buffy, did you stop by the costume shop like you planned? How are you doing, Willow?" she asks pleasantly.

"Yes, mom," Buffy replies.

Willow says, "I am doing well, Mrs. Summers."

"Mrs. Summers," Xander frowns mock seriously, "Did Dawn really fight off thirty evil pickles?"

She smiles teasingly, "Oh yes! The moment I told her that I was going to take them out for a snack, she threw them back into their prison and banished them into cold storage! Of course, it took awhile for me to get the padlock off the door so dinner will be a little late."

Dawn blushes furiously when Buffy glares at her, "Why are you so afraid of pickles? What have they ever done to you?"

"You don't know pickles like I know pickles! They are evil incarnate! It's true!" she screeches angrily.

Willow quietly says, "You are twelve, Dawn. Aren't you getting too old for such irrational fears?"

"It's not irrational! I will find proof that they are evil someday!" the girl proclaims while pumping her arm in the air for emphasis. Dawn finally notices the bags that Xander dropped when he was glomped. Before anyone can stop her, she sits on the floor, rifling through the bags. She slowly holds up the shirt of the Uchiha. Her eyes widen. "Is this the Sasuke costume from Naruto?" she asks almost reverently. Buffy rolls her eyes.

"Yes, Dawn. We are going as ninja this year," Buffy answered.

The hyperactive 12 year old barely takes a pause as she quickly begs her mom, "Can I go as a ninja too? Please, please, please?" Mrs. Summers appears thoughtful.

"Wouldn't you rather go as a princess or a fairy?" her mom asks.

"No!" Dawn practically shouts, "I want to be a ninja! I'm not a little girl anymore!"

Buffy comments smugly, "Actually, you are a little girl."

"I am almost a teenager!" Dawn huffs.

Xander smiles, "If you are too busy, Mrs. Summers, Wills and I could take her. Right, Willow?" The quiet girl nods in agreement.

"Mom! Please tell her that she cannot go as a ninja," pleads the Slayer. "She is going to want to hang around us, and she will embarrass me!" Mrs. Summers raises an eyebrow while frowning at her oldest daughter.

She silences Dawn's loud begging with a raised hand. "I will go with Xander and Dawn so that Willow and Buffy can have some girl time. She has just as much right to dress up as whatever she wants, Elizabeth!"

Said daughter cringes at the use of her name and grumbles under her breath but goes to her room. "Besides," Joyce says. "I need a costume for the party I am holding at the art gallery this Halloween!" Dawn plops Xander's bag onto the kitchen table and hurriedly pulls on both of her newfound companions' hands.

"We have to hurry if we want any good costumes!" the girl exclaims. Xander, Dawn, and Joyce leave the house and pile into the car.

**Elsewhere in Sunnydale in an Abandoned Warehouse:**

Quiet singing and giggling echoes through the warehouse while stupid vampiric minions sit on boxes and watch the clearly insane vampires Drusilla dancing with her bleach-blond lover Spike to an old record. "Dru, honey, dancing with you is fun, but I need to watch the video of the Slayer if we are going to kill her. When she is dead, we can make you strong again!" Spike tells her with his British accent (are all the bad guys British? Lol).

She picks up her doll and spins it around. Drusilla hums along with the record when she says in a sing song tone of voice, "In Halloween comes changes of the times. Miss Edith told me so!"

Spike pauses the video and takes his love into his arms protectively. "What else did Miss Edith tell you, luv?"

Giggling, Drusilla nips at his neck playfully before twirling under his arm and dancing around the room by herself. "The Slayer becomes the desert rose and her sister who sees shall truly see. The clown will be alone. Miss Edith is singing to me!" She drops to her knees and screams. Spike rushes over to her and rubs her back slowly, humming the song that they were dancing to until she calms down and cuddles against him.

"Now, luv, what does that mean?" he asks, quickly becoming frustrated at her riddles.

Seemingly not hearing his question, the vampiress stares into his eyes and mutters, "Can we go out this Halloween?"

Spike is confused. "Dru, nothing happens on Halloween! Why do you want to go out?"

"Something will happen this time!" she says mysteriously before twirling away, dancing and singing around the room as the next song begins to play. He sighs, sits down on his chair, and presses play on the video. He tries to make sense of his love's words, but the more he thinks about them, the more confused he gets.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 2**

**At Ethan's Shop:**

"Back again?" questions the British store clerk with a frown when Xander enters the building. "Is there a problem with the costume?"

Xander smiles at him, "No, the costume is great! I am just keeping my promise to tell friends about this place." Dawn and Joyce walk in behind him. Ethan sees the companions and nods understandingly.

Dawn's mother spots Jenny Calendar, the high school computer teacher. "Jenny, it's nice to see you! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, just picking out costumes, and hopefully convincing Rupert to dress up. He does not seem to like Halloween very much," she replies as she pulls her black hair back behind her ears. "This is his friend's niece."

"Speaking of G-man," Xander grins, "I have just the costume for him!" He holds out a large red costume with a huge white wig on it and scrolls dangling from the belt from the nearby wall.

Jenny smiles widely as the mental image forms in her head. "That will do nicely! Thank you, Xander."

Xander notices the beautiful young woman, bows slightly, and says, "I am Xander Harris, and it is a pleasure to meet you." The girl shakes his hand slowly.

"My name is Tara," she responds quietly but happily.

The young man says with his trademark grin, "Well, if you need help with anything at all, I'm the guy to call." The two older women roll their eyes as Tara giggles.

"You have a crush on her!" Dawn accuses him noisily.

Xander blushes and quickly directs Dawn to the ninja section, "That is none of your business!"

"May I join you?" Tara asks Xander shyly. The boy smiles widely and welcomes her into the ninja corner, attempting to keep Dawn from making embarrassing comments. The children pick out their costumes slowly while Xander and Dawn nerd babble about the show. To their surprise, Tara nerd babbles just as well as they do about the anime show. Joyce watches her excited daughter with a small smile before turning to the ninja section for her own costume.

After a brief search, a mischievous grin crosses her face. She takes the costume off the wall, purchases it, and puts it into a translucent plastic bag. Dawn finally picks out her costume and pays for it. "What did you get, mom?" the hyperactive girl asks.

Joyce smirks and says, "You will have to find out on Halloween."

Dawn appears disappointed but replies loudly, "Then I won't say who I am either! You will have to wait too!" She clenches a blue wig and costume before stomping away to the car. "It was nice to meet you, Tara!" she calls over her shoulder as she drags Xander behind her.

"See you on Halloween!" Xander manages to say before being yanked out the door by the jealous twelve year old. Tara waves goodbye cheerfully.

Jenny tells the other 'responsible adult', "I had better get going. Tara and I both will need some time to convince Rupert to dress up this year." She had also grab a costume from the ninja section.

Ethan waves to them "Come again and have an interesting Halloween!" He lets out a low, evil chuckle after their vehicle leaves.

**A Few Hours Later:  
**  
The large teenage boy Larry walks into the store reluctantly. "Is there anything I can help you with, young sir?" Ethan inquires politely when the boy wanders near him.

Larry jumps slightly, startled. "Yeah, I was wondering what is popular today. I was going to go as a pirate, but the costume was already bought, and I didn't see anything else I liked."

"Well," Ethan slowly answers, "Today the popular theme has been ninjas. Perhaps you would like to take a look at the available costumes?" Larry agrees quickly and follows the man to the ninja section. "Here we are! Not many of the costumes seem to be your size, sir, but I am confident you will find something of interest." He leaves the school bully and goes into the back of the store.

Larry's eyes slowly examine each costume with mild interest until he happens across one of the costumes. "Perfect!" he mutters to himself.

He is about to purchase the costume when Amy walks in. "Hey, Amy," he says as charmingly as he can. When she ignores him, he frowns and thinks, 'I know she likes me.' "So, Amy, what are you going to buy?"

Amy finds the costume she wants and takes it to the counter. He stares at the flute dangling from the sleeve in a small transparent bag. "It's called a flute, jock," she states when she notices his staring.

"What did I do to tick you off?" he demands.

She sighs loudly. "It has just been a really long day. See you at the Halloween trick-or-treating thingy? I saw your name on the list."

When Larry nods, she smiles and says goodbye. He barely has time to answer when she is gone. The large boy is confused but shrugs it off and pays money for his costume.

**At the Summers' House:  
**  
Dawn bursts into Buffy's room and jumps onto her bed. "I got a cooler costume then you do!" She jumps up and down while repeating herself loudly. Buffy sighs at the pest and lightly taps her on the head with the giant fan, knocking her over.

"Good for you. Now get out of my room!" the Slayer exclaims, impatiently making the fan hit her hand as a baseball bat would.

The little sister stares at the giant fan fearfully, and takes off running down the hallway screaming, "Mom, save me! Buffy is going to kill me with her huge fan!!"

"Do you have to be so mean to her?" Willow asks quietly.

Buffy stares at her, "Yes! Being nice to siblings only results in them not listening the next time. It's either this now, or a major thumping later!" Willow sighs and shrugs, muttering something about wishing that she had siblings.

Joyce stands in her daughter's doorway, "Buffy, were you threatening your sister?"

"Of course not!" Buffy says innocently. "I simply told her to get out of my room and gave her some motivation!" Mrs. Summers glances between Willow and Buffy suspiciously but sighs. "Okay, but be nice to your sister! She is the only sister you ever get."

Two hours before closing time at Ethan's:

A light brown-skinned girl slowly stalks into the store, looking around cautiously. "Um, can I help you, Miss?" Ethan says with confusion about her strange behavior.

"Yes," she replies with a heavy accent and slightly broken English. "I want a costume called 'ninja'.

Ethan smiles pleasantly and places his hand on her shoulder to guide her to the section, but she grabs his wrist and twists him into a submission hold. "Tell me where I can get costume, but do not touch me!"

"Yes, ma'am," groans Ethan as she releases his arm. He rubs his sore arm and reevaluates his initial impression of the strange girl. "Over here are the costumes," he gestures with his other arm.

She takes out a small piece of paper that has written on it: Warrior of night allied with the Cat. The girl looks through the costumes, reading each info card to the best of her ability. Ethan watches curiously, careful to not get too closer to her. She finds the costume she wants and holds it out to him. "How much is this?"

"That is fifteen dollars," he answers quickly.

The young woman frowns and replies, "I will take it." She counts out the money into his hand and walks away without another word. He continues watching her as she leaves the store, looking in all directions suspiciously before leaving his sight.

"Strange girl," he muses.

**At Closing Time:**

Ethan steps outside his shop to lock it up for the night. The sun has already set and most people are either asleep or at home. A woman's voice says from behind him, "Daddy, he will change everything!" He spins around and comes face to face with Spike.

"Hello, Mr. Costume-Salesman. My girl Dru here and I are interested in making a purchase from your establishment," he says casually.

The British man shakes his head, "I'm sorry, but I am locking up for the night. Come back tomorrow." He turns around and looks in the door's reflection but only sees himself. A moment later, he is picked up off the ground by the throat and Spike shows his true face.

"Now, mister," he growls, "You will open the store for us, we will make our purchase, and you will survive the night. Try to disagree with me and the third will not be guaranteed. Do I make myself clear?"

Ethan stares down at the bleach-blond vampire and his girlfriend and gasps, "Yes! Take whatever you want!"

"Now, here is a smart man," Spike comments and puts him down, smoothing out the wrinkles in his coat. "You were going to open the door for us." Ethan hurries to let them in. "Go find our costumes, my pet," he tells Dru. Her giggle scares Ethan as she starts dancing around the shop.

Ethan sighs and thinks, 'This is going to be a looong night, but the Chaos from this will be spectacular!" He watches the two vampires worriedly. 'That is, if I survive the night.'


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

**Halloween Evening at the Summers House:**

The doorbell rings, and Mrs. Summers opens the door. "Hello, Xander. I'll tell the girls that you are here."

"Hey, Mrs. Sum…" the teenage boy trails off as he stares at her costume. His eyes glaze over when he notices how low cut her shirt is. He zones out while his brain attempts to reboot itself.

She waves her hand in front of his face. "Are you okay, Xander?" When she does not receive an answer, Joyce pokes his shoulder. "Oh my," she mutters at Xander's dazed expression. "I think I broke Xander!" She takes his arm and slowly guides him into the house. His mouth is still hanging open.

Dawn hears her mom calling that Xander has arrived. The child rushes down the stars and glomps Xander. "Hey! I love your costume," she says loudly. He does not say anything, so she follows his gaze. "Xander, wake up!" she screams when it dawns on her why he is brain dead.

The young man snaps out of his stupor. "W-what? I zoned out." The two females give him an incredulous look. "I had a lot on my mind! It is Halloween after all," he insists. Joyce has the decency to blush while her daughter rolls her eyes.

Suddenly, Buffy announces from the top of the stairs, "Presenting the one and only…" A ghost walks up behind her. "…the ghost?" she finishes with disappointment. Willow mumbles from under her costume and passes her. With a mischievous smirk, the Slayer yanks off the ghost costume and tosses it to Joyce, leaving Willow as red as the Sakura costume she is wearing.

"Willow, you look great. Sakura is so much cooler than the normal ghost costume," Dawn loudly proclaims with the others nodding in agreement.

Willow replies, "You all have nice costumes too, especially your contacts." Buffy focuses on the group to see Xander's sharingan contacts in along with Dawn's pupiless eyes staring back at her. Her eyes widen drastically as she takes in her mother's costume.

"Xander!" Buffy practically roars. "What were you thinking, getting my mom a costume like that? Never mind, I don't want to know what you were thinking!"

Xander protests with raised hands, "But I didn't get that for her!"

"I told Xander that he would find out today which costume I bought," Joyce interjects calmly.

Buffy glares at her mother, "Than you, same question!" Joyce raises an eyebrow at her daughter's outburst.

"I was thinking that it is a nice costume, about my size, and the character seems to have an interesting background story," Joyce explains.

Buffy responds flatly, "You are not wearing that in public."

"Says who?" Joyce inquires with deceptive calmness.

Buffy frowns and answers quickly, "Says me! There is no way my mom is wearing that in public!"

Joyce puts her hands on her hips as the other children slowly back away. "Oh really?" she counters. "Which is more revealing, your regular school attire or this costume?"

"My clothes, but—", Buffy starts to say.

Joyce interrupts coldly, "Elizabeth Summers, I am the mother and you are the daughter. You are being very disrespectful and hypocritical."

Buffy scowls and crosses her arms. "Let's go, guys," she huffs. Without waiting for a response, she stalks out the door with Willow trailing close behind.

"Have fun trick-or-treating!" the mother calls after them cheerfully while smiling.

**An Hour and a Half Later at Ethan's Shop:**

In the back room, Ethan dresses in black robes and slowly dabs some blood on his forehead and cheeks. "Janus, God of Chaos, I ask for your power. I am, as always, your degenerate son."

With that said, he begins chanting in Latin as the eyes of the small statue of Janus start to glow.

**With Willow's Group:  
**  
The children all say, "Trick or treat!" as the old woman's door opens.

"Oh! Aren't you all so cute!" the lady says. She checks her candy bags. "Sorry, dears, but I am afraid I am out of candy." The masks of the children cling to their faces and morphs into their skin. The small gremlins and demons lunge at her and begin choking her.

Willow grabs onto them, "Hey, kids, cut it out! Let her go! What are you doing?" A wave of dizziness washes over her and she staggers to her knees, leaning against the wall weakly. "What is going on?" she murmurs before her eyes close. She opens her eyes, stands up, and looks around curiously. Her hair brightens slightly into a lighter shade of red bordering pink. She stares at the demons in front of her and draws her kunai quickly. "Where am I?" she demands. The small creatures turn to her and growl lowly. "Oh great," she mutters.

**With Buffy's Group:  
**  
Buffy and her children walk along casually. "We can do one more house before I have to take you home," the Slayer says to them. The children cheer, but their cheers fade into snarls and confused gazes in all directions. "Is something wrong?" she asks. Suddenly, she feels like she was hit by a huge fan right in the head, but her fan is still at her side.

"Get out or I will kill you!" a voice in her head shouts with a feral snarl.

An unfamiliar human female-sounding voice shouts, "Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!" The snarling voice cries out once before falling silent.

Her body slowly grows a few inches taller as existing muscle expands, leaving her someone more physically mature. Buffy opens her eyes and looks around. "Wasn't I just in Suna?" she whispers to herself.

**Back Alleys of Sunnydale; Five minutes before the Spell Begins:**

The souled vampire Angel strolls through the alley towards the Bronze. "The things I do for her!" he mumbles. He pulls the forehead protector down over his left eye. Angel glances at the small info card and picture of Kakashi. "'Wear the whole costume', she said. I'm a vampire. I hate Halloween! But, it will make her happy." He feels dizzy and stumbles into a dumpster, dropping the info card.

Angel staggers to his feet and grunts in pain as a dark, deformed figure slowly pulls out of his back. The creature screams and does its best to hold onto him. He lets out a quiet cry of agony. It screams louder and releases him from its grip, causing him to fall forward into a trash can. He gasps loudly and grabs at his left eye as a sharp pain tears through it. Following the pain in his eye, a final wave of agony tears through his chest forces him to the ground. A soundless scream of pain forms on his lips.

_Thump  
_  
There is a sharp intake of air into his lungs.

_Thump thump  
_  
The overwhelming rush of torment sends him into unconsciousness.

_Thump thump_

**Xander's Group:  
**  
Xander tries to control his wild wards in vain when a smashing pain rocks his head. The pain builds around and behind his eyes. The pain slowly subsides and he opens his swirling red eyes.

Another wave of pain rocks his body as the three marks on his neck darken to form the curse mark. Unable to contain the pain, he falls to his knees and lets out a bloodcurdling scream.

**Dawn and Jonathan:  
**  
Both fall to the ground grabbing at their eyes as their pupils disappear and the veins around their eyes visibly surge with blood. A few minutes later, they both stand up in their own parts of town and the pain stops. Jonathan looks around slowly and shouts, "Where am I? Byukagun!"

**The Dark-skinned Girl from the Store:**

Now in an alley behind a large apartment building, the girl writhes on the ground, colorful surges of chakra rolling off of her. A hazy blue smoke-like material covers her skin and claws protrude on her fingertips. Screaming in pain and fury, the substance slowly ebbs until it disappears completely, slowly withdrawing back into her body. A feral lion's roar erupts from her lips as her teeth sharpen and lengthen slightly. Two tails of swirling blue energy sway back and forth behind her while the ground beneath her becomes a small crater.

As this was going on, her skin turned lighter in color, and her hair turned a color between her black hair and blond.

Inside of her, a gigantic two tailed cat wrestles with a feral woman-like creature of amazing strength and speed. Both roar for dominance. Outwardly, the girl's energy tails slowly fade and a seal appears on her upper back between her shoulder blades. Catlike slits appear on her now-slanted eyes. Another roar shakes the air around her, and anything nearby scurries away in fear.

The giant cat finally crushes the other mini-demon and purrs contentedly at her victory. Yugito blinks and immediately draws two kunai. She looks around cautiously. "I must have gotten away from them! I will be ready next time they come for me." With that, she jumps onto the nearest rooftop and leaps from rooftop to rooftop with ease.

**Oz while driving his Van to a party:**

The vehicle abruptly stops as the sand pours out of the gourd next to Oz, smashing and crushing everything in its path. He holds his head and stumbles out of the twisted wreck that was the van in a daze, his sand violently stirring around him.

In a large cage, a savage wolf and giant one-tailed raccoon wrestle and scratch each other ending with the hyena squealing as its neck snaps loudly.

Dark bags slowly form under his eyes and he regains his composure. The red-haired young man looks around indifferently at the town around him. "Strange," he states. The sand gathers itself back into his gourd followed by him calmly corking the sand-filled container.

**The Nerd Trio on the Other Side of Town:**

After looking around a bit, Jonathan final notices a blonde-haired person beside him, and kicking himself for not noticing him sooner, along with the second person, but his attention is immediately drawn to the second purple-clothed man behind them. He spins on his heels and draws four shuriken. "Orochimaru," he grinds out.

Andrew rolls on the ground, crying out in agony as the whisker marks on his face deepen and a red glow surrounds him before receding into his stomach. "Huh?" he exclaims as he sits up quickly. "Man, I have a giant headache! What happened? Where is Konoha? I'm hungry! I want some Ramen."

Jonathan keeps his eyes on the kneeling form of the Snake Sannin and states, "Naruto, Shut Up!" Finally noticing the boy next to him, Naruto hops to his feet and stares at Orochimaru.

"Oh no! Where did he come from?" Naruto whines.

Neji frowns, "He was here the whole time, idiot."

"I knew that!" he replies.

Orochimaru slowly rises to his full height and gazes upon the two Leaf Genin in front of him. "Kukuku, now this is unexpected. I have my arms and I am not in pain. Do you two have anything to do with that?"

Neji falls into a Jyuken stance. "No, you sick traitor!"

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear, kukuku," Orochimaru hisses before chuckling evilly. "Then again, perhaps you should. Run away, little mice, I have better things to do." Naruto opens his mouth to shout something, but Neji quickly covers his mouth and grabs him by the back of his collar. They both leap onto a nearby building and start hopping away. "Now, where am I?" the Sannin murmurs to himself. "This is not where I fell asleep."

Neji sweats nervously as he keeps his Byukagun on. 'He's not following us. He must be after something bigger. Lucky for us,' he thinks. 'Wait, something is strange.' "Naruto," the Hyuga prodigy says out loud. "You look different then usual."

"Yeah! I'm taller! Isn't it cool?" the blonde Jinchūriki happily exclaims.

Sighing, Neji replies, "No! I mean, I, you, and Orochimaru look different somehow! Even our chakra looks different. It looks almost as if someone pasted our chakra onto some foreign body."

"But, that's impossible, right?" Naruto says loudly.

"Be quieter, Naruto! We need to go gather some information about our surroundings. Let's see if there are any other ninja around here," he responds quickly.

Naruto grins, "If there are ninja to be found, we'll find them! Believe it!" Neji sighs and keeps jumping, surveying the surrounding area for anyone familiar.

**At the Art Gallery:**

A pirate slowly approaches Joyce with a greedy look in his eye. "Oh, pretty, pretty!" he cackles. Joyce sends the pirate flying out through the roof and landing halfway across town. "Lady Tsunade!" Miss Calendar says as she rushes to her side. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, Shizune. But I plan on finding out. Let's go," she states. Shizune and a small pig follow her quickly, dispatching anyone that crosses their path with a swift blow to the neck.

**Faith six minutes before the spell starts:  
**  
She looks in the mirror and examines herself. "Definitely looks hot! The boys will be drooling over me." she says to herself, very pleased. Faith is about to walk out the door for trick-or-treating when she remembers the small spiral tattoo for the neck. "Almost forgot," she mutters. The young woman peels it off and presses it onto her neck, two of the three marks sticking. Absently, she tosses the piece of paper into a garbage can and rushes out the door, eager to go show off her costume.

The dark-haired hottie finally catches up with the rest of the trick-or-treaters when the stick-on tattoo starts burning badly. It feels like fire is creeping from the mark and trying to spread into the rest of her body. Barely able to focus on anything but the pain, she falls to the ground while trying to rub it off. A few seconds later, she stands up again and twirls a kunai on her finger dangerously. "This is not the dango shop or the bar."

The young woman spots a familiar girl nearby whose hair is in buns. She is just finishing tying up the small creatures near her with ninja wire and hanging them from the tree, using kunai as anchors for the wire. "Weapons girl, is that you?"

She looks up and sees her. "Oh, hey, Miss Anko. So you are here too, huh? I can't figure out how we got here! I close my eyes to go to sleep and I wake up here surrounded by these weird monsters!"

"Me too, only I think I passed out at the bar," Anko replies sheepishly.

The Weapons Mistress pulls out another scroll full of weapons. "Well, we should stick together. Who knows what else is out there?"

"Sounds good to me," Anko answers flippantly, walking alongside her new companion quickly.

**With Larry and Amy:**

"You didn't have to come over here!" Amy says shyly.

Larry shrugs and says a little too fast, "You looked like you didn't have a lot of candy, and you seemed to be pretty down earlier." Amy smiles but the smile quickly fades as pain overcomes her. Larry goes to help but is stopped as dizziness overcomes him. He is the first to recover, and looks around, with is long enough for Amy to recover. They look at each other at the same time. When they make eye contact, she jumps back, pulling out her flute.

"Who are you?" she demands.

Larry replies flatly, "Kunkuro of Suna. You look familiar from somewhere. Hey! Weren't you that one snake guy's bodyguard?"

"Obviously, butthead," Tayuya retorts. They stare at each other for a few minutes and take care of whatever bumps into them.

Kunkuro shrugs and says hesitantly, "Are we going to stare at each other all night or try to figure out how we got here?"

Tayuya grunts and walks away. Miffed at being dismissed so quickly, Kunkuro jogs up beside her. They don't look at each other or say anything; they just run towards the surge of chakra that they both recognize as Gaara's.

**Just outside of an Abandoned Warehouse: **

Zabuza opens his eyes and looks around warily. "I just died, so is this Hell?" He looks beside him and sees Haku. "I was sure he wouldn't be here!" Suddenly, he notices something off about his companion.

"Haku… has a chest! He's a girl!" he says startled.

Haku opens her eyes and looks at her master. "Master Zabuza, it is good to see you. Why is your hair white?"

Zabuza runs his hand through his hair slowly and growls, "Something is wrong here!" A small pack of demons runs past them. He sighs loudly. "I was right, I did end up here."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 4:

**A Few Seconds Before Anko Wakes up in Faith's Body:**

The Slayer Essence staggers through darkness, clutching her wounded side and arm. For the first time in existence, she feels pain. She is dying slowly, needing a new host before her spirit faded into nothingness.

She looks around as she stumbles through the dark, glowing forms of human souls surrounding her. One glows brightly; this one will be her new host. The Essence dives into the host. The new host's muscles become denser and the bones strengthen dramatically. She is about to finish the changes suitable for her to exist when she feels strong resistance to the changes. The Essence pushes harder, only to come face to face with a giant snake. "Again?" she shouts in frustration. "Where are all these giant spirit animals coming from?"

Anko's curse mark starts glowing as the snake hisses at the Slayer Essence. "I'm the Slayer! I can kill anything!" she roars at the reptile.

It slithers around her and suddenly constricts, crushing several more of her bones. The snake hisses in laughter at her struggling. "This one is mine! She shall always be mine," the snake hisses. To the beast's surprise, she bites the surrounding snake tail hard. It recoils from her quickly. The Essence limps out of the body as quickly as it can, the curse seal relaxing and laying dormant. A little girl with dark hair stares at the giant sleeping snake, having witnessed this encounter.

The Slayer is desperate now that she can feel her life force slowly ebbing away. All the souls on the planet glow under her gaze and one soul out of them all glows brightly. She rushes to the new host, merging with it as quickly as possible. The physical changes start, but the Essence is wary of any unexpected surprises. When no spirit monsters appear, she relaxes enough to completely merge with her new host, forming the new Vampire Slayer.

Kennedy rises from the floor of her room and flexes her arms. She can feel strange new power rushing through her veins. After a few minutes, the new Slayer shrugs and decides to try to figure out what is going on later.

**Before the Spell at Giles' House:**

"Tara, hurry up! You are going to miss the trick-or-treating!" Giles calls down the hall.

Tara answers, "Sorry! I'll be out in a minute!"

The British librarian looks at a full-length mirror and thinks, 'How did I let Jenny talk me into wearing this?' A large scroll hangs from his back, and a long white wig trails down over his shoulders and down his back. "This costume hardly portrays the image of a dignified teacher that Jenny told me he was!" he mutters. The only thing missing on the costume is the info card, which was conveniently misplaced before the costume was delivered to him.

"I'm done!" Tara exclaims happily. She exits her room clothed with light gray armor with small ninja pouches within reaching distance on her pants. A katana is strapped across her back, and a strange mask is resting on her head, pressing against the purple wig, instead of her face.

Giles smiles at her, "It looks good on you. Now, shall we be off?" She nods quickly and leaves the house with him. They walk towards the car when the spell happens. Both people take an unsteady step as their bodies instantaneously change. Giles takes another step before glancing at the car in confusion. "What is that?" he says with a hint of his British accent.

"Master Jiraiya!" Tara bows slightly. "How did you get here too?"

"I have no idea, ANBU, but this stinks of Orochimaru," the Sannin grumbles, pulling off his glasses and dropping them into his pocket. "Summoning Jutsu!" he shouts as he bites his thumb and slams his hand against the ground.

A frog easily twice the size of a man appears under him with samurai-like armor covering its arms and chest. It looks up at him, "Jiraiya, why did you summon me?"

Jiraiya glares, "Because I fell asleep, and woke up here with this ANBU. Neither of us have any idea where we are. We need you to either gather information or carry us." The frog draws two swords from the sheaths on both legs and replies curtly, "Then get on! I can hear battles all over this place, and I am getting restless."

"Hope on, ANBU," Jiraiya orders. Tara covers her face with the mask and leaps onto the frog. The Sannin states quickly, "Hold on!" She is about to ask why when the frog leaps into the sky.

She asks while holding on for dear life, "Master Jiraiya, what happened to my team?" They land, leaving a small crater.

"As much as I hate saying it twice in one day, I don't know," he responds flatly.

**Dawn's Location:**

Buffy's little sister tries to calm the creatures around her consisting of four demons, two Dracula's, and a heavily bandaged mummy. The biggest of the demons chase after their adult guardian. Dawn drops into a fighting stance as the three remaining demons focus on her. The charge at her, and with her Byukagun blazing, she sees the chakra networks of both the demons and the children, but she has no time to question this strange sight. She lunges forward and dodges their sloppy fists with ease, kneeing them in the stomach and dancing in closer to them. Her fingers jab at their chakra points, knocking the demonic trio out within a few seconds.

The Dracula's stare at her and then at each other nervously. "You go first," one demands.

The second one replies, "Are you insane? You go first!"

"We'll go together!" the first one announces.

The second vampire grins, "Good! On three! One…Two…Three!" He feigns a step forward, and his companion rushes in while he watches.

"These are more powerful!" Dawn mutters to herself nervously. She gets back to her fighting stance and dodges his punches, one or two landing occasionally before she is able to knock him out. The second one leaps at her from behind to which she easily drops to one knee and flips him over her shoulders and into a street light pole, knocking him unconscious.

The mummy stands still as he and the ninja study each other. Silence fills the air and she charges at him noiselessly. He flings out his hand, a thin bandage lashing out at her and barely nicking her cheek before withdrawing it. The Hyuga stops her charge and reevaluates her opponent's skills. A deep evil chuckle emanates from the wrapped up creature.

Dawn runs forward again, only this time, the mummy uses both hands. She leaps over and dodges the bandages as she stabs at them with a kunai, slicing them off. The mummy lets out a disgruntled groan and forms a long whip out of his bandages. He lashes the whip at her and she cuts at his weapon. The bandage splits against the sharp blade but the split ends wrap around the handle and yank it from her grasp.

She shoots small bursts of chakra from her fingertips and begins slicing away any wayward wrappings. The sharp wrappings leave cuts on her arms and legs as she weaves in and out through the maze of bandages. Three of the bandages that seem to be lying dormant on the ground wrap around her left ankle and slam her into the nearest wall, making it shake from the impact. The mummy flicks his wrist in the opposite direction and she flies past him and into the street. She stumbles to her feet and wipes away some blood from her mouth. The bandages tighten again before she can slice at them and pulls her close to him. Twisting her body, she reaches backwards and manages to cut at them.

Dawn rolls in close to him and pops up. "I got you!" she states. The mummy laughs quietly before dozens of thick bandages shoot off from all over his body, wrapping around her tightly until she resembles him. Dawn struggles but cannot move. The wrappings tighten around her, gradually crushing the life out of her.

'I cannot give up! That is my ninja way! Oh, Naruto, I wish you were here,' she thinks. The Hyuga calms down and thinks about what possible ways there are to escape. A few seconds later, the bandages fall from her in dozens of small pieces. She drops to the ground and slowly stands back up, small holes appearing through her clothing from the chakra she used to cut her restraints. "For you, Naruto!" she exclaims. Focusing on the dark chakra that she sees through her Byukagun, she jabs through the remaining bandages onto the strange chakra points. The mummy stares at his tattered wrappings blankly as he feels his opponent's fingers slam into his body. She moves as fast as she can, dodging a few broad swings from the mummy, and seals as many main chakra points that she can hit until he falls to the ground. She stays in a ready stance but he does not get back up.

Neji and Naruto leap from a nearby roof onto the ground next to her, slightly out of breath. "Lady Hinata, are you all right?" Neji questions, glancing at her fallen opponents.

Naruto exclaims very loudly, "Hinata! You did great with these guys! So are you okay?" He gives her a big hug. Three things happen: Hinata's face turns a bright red, she says, "Naruto!", and passes out. Naruto yells worriedly, "Hinata! Hinata! Wake up! Are you okay?"

Neji gazes at his cousin and states solemnly, "Something has happened, Naruto."

"What has happened?" Naruto demands.

The Hyuga prodigy takes a deep breath and says, "She fainted."

(Author's note: If this were anime instead of real life, Naruto would have face vaulted, but his expression said it all instead, much to Neji's satisfaction.)

Naruto creates a shadow clone and they trade places. The clone puts Hinata onto his back. Naruto and Neji jump back onto the rooftops, and the clone follows loudly, shouting, "Hey! Wait for me!"

**At Angel's Location:  
**  
Kakashi's eye shoots open as he takes in a sharp breath, his body aching all over. "I feel like I was a punching bag for Lady Hokage for ten rounds!" he groans. He slowly pushes himself into a sitting position against the alley wall.

He listens to the sounds of screaming and animal noises with his eye closed. After resting for a minute his body quickly recovers most of its strength. The ninja stands and strolls down the alley while wondering what is going on.

A small winged monkey soars down and pounces on him. Before the strange blue monkey can react, it is knocked out with a quick blow to the head. He turns on his heel when he senses the child's chakra. Kakashi lifts his forehead protector to view the creature with his Sharingan. "Odd beast…it is as if there is two people's chakra in the same body. The closest thing I have seen to this would be Naruto and the Fox," he murmurs.

The Jonin moves his hand up to pull the protector back down. The same dual energy that he saw in the flying monkey is seen in his hand. He slowly examines his hands and the rest of his body with his eye. "One minute, I am in the Leaf Village. Next minute, I am a strange land with creatures that look like they could be out of a child's storybook. Then, I have dual chakra, and only one of them is mine! It's just like that creature!" Kakashi slowly looks around on the ground and notices a faint chakra trail leading into the street.

A gravelly voice says from behind him, "Well, well, well. If it isn't Kakashi the Copy Nin. That settles it! This is definitely Hell!" Kakashi spins quickly with a kunai drawn; his uncovered eyes wide with recognition and shock; Haku and Zabuza stand several feet away.

"Zabuza? Haku? You two died!" he gasps in surprise.

Zabuza frowns through his bandages. "You mean you are not dead?"

**At Tsunade and Shizune's Location:**

The two women feel the ground shake with an audible boom. "What in the Third's name was that?" exclaims Tsunade.

"Lady Tsunade, Look! It's Master Jiraiya!" Shizune says excitedly with a finger pointing at the now airborne toad-riders.

They hear Jiraiya shouting, "Come on! Surely you have read at least one of my books!"

"No, Sannin Jiraiya, I have not read any of your books!" the purple-haired ANBU calls back. Shizune and Tsunade exchange annoyed looks at Jiraiya's antics.

"Not even one?" He whines loudly, his pride seemingly hurt.

The Anbu retorts, "Not even one!!" They land again right in front of Tsunade and her apprentice. Jiraiya opens his mouth to greet them when he is met with smoldering glares. The powerful Sannin pales noticeably. "Lady Hokage!" the Anbu exclaims. "What are you doing away from the village?"

"If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be here right now!" she states. "Jiraiya," Tsunade continues with deceptive calmness. Jiraiya recognizes her tone of voice and turns completely white.

"Yes, Tsunade?" he says as nicely as he can.

She gives him a smile. "What were you trying to get my ANBU to do before I showed up?"

"Nothing at all! We were simply having a friendly conversation to pass the time!" he protests loudly. The ANBU coughs, "Liar." Clearing her throat, she looks around as if nothing had happened.

Shizune picks up her pig Ton-Ton when it squeals loudly. "What is it, Ton-Ton? Do you smell anyone?" The pig rigorously nods its head. "Ninja?" Ton-Ton continues nodding. "Nearby?" The pig hesitates but nods yes again.

Jiraiya leans forward on his toad and offers, "We can take my toads and look for them together!" A lecherous grin slowly crosses his face.

Tsunade ignores his offer and summons two slugs about the size of a person. "We will take these. Don't worry. These two will have no trouble keeping up, now will you?"

"No, Lady Tsunade," the two slugs chorus simultaneously.

The toad Sannin looks disappointed, but his face lights up and he starts scribbling in a notepad. "JIRAIYA!!" She shouts as she punches him off the toad and through a nearby building. "I have told you to never write that smut around me or else!"

Jiraiya stumbles from the rubble and rubs his head. "That was the 'Or Else'?" he asks.

"No," Tsunade says with a frighteningly sweet smile. Jiraiya almost faints from how pale he becomes.

He squeaks, "Got it!" The Sannin's face quickly turns hard with seriousness. "But, Tsunade, have you noticed?" She nods with a frown on her face, running one of her hands through her hair.

The two Sannin and their companions leap onto their respective summons and take off in the direction of the rest of the noisy trick-or-treaters.

**At Willow's Location:**

The reddish-pinkish haired young woman looks around worriedly. "What were those creatures that attacked me and where am I? Am I in a new hidden village?" The goblin and demon hang upside down behind her by their feet with their companions. Their hands and feet are tied together tightly with ninja wire.

"Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!" she hears being shouted a block away. She faces the sound as an assortment of odd creatures fly past her with cuts spread across their bodies. A cloud of dust follows close behind them. Willow jogs to the corner and peers out of the slightly damaged side of a house. She watches Temari fold her giant fan with a snap and slide it onto her back with ease.

She stutters, "T-Temari? What are you doing here?"

Temari glances at her briefly. "I could ask you the same thing, pinky. I was beginning to think I was the only ninja around here! Though, I sensed Gaara's chakra flare a few minutes ago."

"The guy with the sand that beat up Rock Lee?" she inquires fearfully.

Temari thinks about it for a few seconds and answers, "If you are talking about that freaky green guy with giant eyebrows, yes. My brother beat him up pretty badly. He got off easy that time."

Sasuke Uchiha drops into the street near them from a roof. "So we know that we three and Gaara of the Sand is here?" he asks bluntly.

"Oh Sasuke! I didn't see you there!" Willow blushes furiously. "I was starting to get lonely all alone by myself."

"And what am I?" growls Temari threateningly while reaching for her giant fan.

Willow quickly puts up her hands defensively. "I meant until I got here! I've only been here a minute or two you know!" The sand ninja slowly lowers her hand and glares at Sasuke.

"So, Uchiha, do you have any idea where we are?" Temari inquires with a deep frown on her face.

Sasuke glares at her but responds, "No."

"We should stick together and see if we can find more ninja! Then we can try to find a way home!" Willow enthusiastically suggests.

Sasuke shrugs noncommittally. "I don't know, Sakura. We could cover more ground apart."

Temari, sick of his attitude, grinds out challengingly, "We stick together. First we can find Gaara. Nobody would stand a chance against us with him around. After that, we can try to find a way back to the Hidden Villages. Anyone got a problem with that?"

Sakura opens her mouth to protest, but Sasuke quickly says, "No. It makes sense. But, I'm in charge." Sakura gazes at him dreamily while the air around Sasuke practically boils with killer intent from Temari.

"Let's go," Sasuke announces, running down the street.

Sakura cries out happily, "Wait for me, Sasuke!" Temari rolls her eyes, mumbles something about being too old to be babysitting, and runs after them.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: see chapter 1, and I don't own Star Wars

Chapter 5:

**With Naruto and the Hyuga:**

The Hyuga prodigy holds up a fist and the group stops. "What's wrong, Neji?" whispers Hinata.

Neji replies, "I sense something evil nearby. It could be a threat."

"Something evil?" Naruto echoes blankly.

The fox demon Kyuubi in Naruto's stomach roars, 'Evil? Evil?? I am the King of the Demons! I am the most evil thing around! That small fry is nothing compared to me!'

The blonde young man appears next to the Kyuubi's cage and shouts, "I know you are evil! We all know you are evil. You never shut up about it! Give it a rest or I will change your cage to be filled with flowers and cute little stuffed bears!" The intimidating fox demon looks scared.

'You wouldn't,' Kyuubi says, staring in horror at Naruto.

Naruto leans in close to the cage and grins, "Try me!" He disappears before the Kyuubi can try to claw at him.

'Why me!?' Kyuubi shouts while staring at the roof of his cage. 'All I did was attack the puny village and terrorize mortals for several millennia! It's not as if I did something worthy of being stuck in this brat's stomach! All he eats is ramen, for crying out loud! I live in the stomach that digests all of that ramen! Nothing but ramen, I'm telling you!' He receives no answer and roars in frustration. A single daisy sprouts up in front of him. The mighty fox lord quickly stomps it out and glares at the crushed daisy. 'Nothing I did could make me deserves this," he mumbles.

In the real world, the three ninja hear the deep, raspy breathing of something in the alley. Naruto jumps down only to come face to face to Darth Vader. Neji curses the blonde's lack of strategy and joins him with his cousin.

"I sense much fear and anger in you!" the Sith Lord says as he points a finger at Naruto. Hinata and Neji try to stifle their laughter. "Join me, and we will rule the universe!" he finishes grandly.

Naruto tilts his head and stares at the strangely armored man. "Huh?"

Darth Vader draws his lightsaber and ignites it. "You are mocking me! Nobody mocks a Sith Lord and lives!"

"What?" Naruto says blankly.  
Vader shouts, "Die, boy!" Naruto easily dodges the blade and kicks the lightsaber's handle, causing it to fly up into the air. Its owner attempts to call it back, but ninja wire hold it firmly in place out of the way of the glowing blade.

The Sith Lord stares at the stuck lightsaber and turns back to his opponents. "Fear me! I, the mighty Darth Vader, will kill you all!" He looks down to see Naruto randomly pressing buttons on his chest panel.

"Oh! What does this one do?" Naruto asks as he presses a green button.

Darth Vader shouts as he grabs for the clumsy ninja, "Don't touch the green button!" Hinata and Neji's faces wrinkle in confusion. "What is so funny?" he shouts, his voice now very high and squeaky. He presses the green button again and his voice returns to normal. "Do not mess with my buttons, weaklings, or I will crush you all!"

"Weren't you going to do that anyways?" Neji asks pointedly.

For once, Vader is at a loss for words as he tries to think of a reply. "So if the green button makes it high, than the blue button makes you sound like…" Naruto says loudly, attracting the Sith's attention. He reaches for Naruto again, but the button has been pushed.

"Stop pushing my buttons!!" he roars. He would have sounded intimidating, if his voice didn't sound like Daffy Duck. Naruto rolls on the ground laughing. "That's it!" Vader shouts furiously. He throws Naruto against the wall with a force push. "Now you know the power of the Dark Side!" he states smugly, his voice back to normal. Naruto pops into a puff of smoke. "Your power is no match for the Dark Side!"

"So, you want to get serious, huh?" several voices say from above him. Darth Vader looks up to see four Narutos clinging to the walls. Vader snaps the wires with the force and calls his lightsaber back to his hand. Igniting the red blade, he force pushes the Narutos into the air.

Vader leaps at him and slices through the Narutos with ease, all of them going 'poof'. He lands silently and prepares to go onto his gloating speech when he feels someone tap on his shoulder. He looks over his shoulder and sees a fist. The armored man flies backwards, and three feet kick him upwards. "UZ" a clone shouts. "U" another clone continues. "MAKI" the third shadow clone yells. The real Naruto finishes with "BARRAGE!" His kick drives Vader into the ground, creating a small crater.

"Good job, Naruto!" squeaks Hinata. Naruto lands and grins, scratching the back of his head. He opens his mouth to say how great that move was, but he trips over a trash can lid.

Neji intones, "Still a loser, a powerful loser, but still a loser."

The blonde ninja jumps to his feet and shouts, "I am not a Loser!"

Anko and Tenten drop from the roofs and land behind Naruto. "I-it's Kurenai sensei's crazy snake friend!" Naruto stammers. He hides behind Neji fearfully. "I knew she would come for me someday."

"Naruto, would you please stop this ridiculous behavior?" Neji states, embarrassed for him.

Anko laughs loudly, walks to him as Neji steps aside, and slaps Naruto on the back. "That's me!" The blonde Genin is smashed face first into the hard ground. Tenten sighs and helps Naruto to his feet.

"Hey, Hinata," Tenten says politely. She faces Neji solemnly. "I don't know how we got here. Is Rock Lee here too?"

Neji activates his Byukagun and looks around the town. "No, I do not believe he is here." His teammate sighs but nods in acknowledgement. "But, the Byukagun has revealed that all of us have dual chakras. The residual chakra traces from the darker chakra trails towards the southern part of town."

Naruto shouts, "Then why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"Because I did not have time to mention it before now," Neji replies, clearly annoyed.

Anko frowns. "I felt that something was off about my body. Have you found any others?" Naruto shakes his head, rubbing the bump now protruding from his skull.

"At least she doesn't hit as hard as Sakura," he mutters. Naruto quickly looks around for signs of retaliation from a hidden Sakura and when none comes he relaxes.

Neji states, "We are trying to gather as many ninja that we can in hopes that we can figure out where we are and how to get home."

"We were thinking about doing the same," answers Anko. "Let's stick together." The Genin agree. They all walk out of the alley into the street, various creatures and people running past them.

Hinata asks the special Jonin, "Miss Anko, I-I was w-wondering, do you think that there are more powerful ninja around that can help us?"

"I wouldn't doubt it, Princess," Anko replies with a sigh. The team works their way down the street. They leave behind a tangled mess of fictional characters tied to trees, fire hydrants, and fence posts.

**At Kakashi's Location:**

Kakashi eyes the two missing nin suspiciously. His sharingan shows dual chakra and the faint chakra trail. "Have you two noticed anything…odd about your bodies?" he asks.

Haku blushes while Zabuza points a thumb at her. "He is now a she! Odd enough for you?" Kakashi stares at the young nin for a few seconds.

"Yeah, that definitely qualifies as odd," he says. The famous Copy Nin lets out a perverted giggle at the thought of the boy-turned-girl.

A sebon needle pins the pants right next to his crotch to the wall. "Get those thoughts out of your head, Kakashi," Zabuza growls. Haku holds up his hand with four sebon needles ready to be thrown.

Kakashi's eyes widen again and he exclaims, "Gone? Yes! They are long gone. I didn't even know they were there!" He thinks to himself, 'I can't believe I actually thought that! Maybe these books are getting to me?" A few moments later, he decides, 'Nah! Wait a second, what if it happened to me…" Chills run down his spine.

Zabuza clears his throat to get his attention. "So, what have you discovered, Kakashi?" he glares menacingly. "It had better be a way to change Haku back!"

"Actually," Kakashi says in his usual bored tone, "I think that we are not in our own bodies. That would explain a lot, from our physical changes to our location." He pulls his forehead protector down over his eye. "We all have dual chakras. One suppressing the other. There is also a faint chakra trail from the oppressing chakra leading back to its source."

Haku looks to her master for instructions. "Let's try to find out where we are from the locals. With any luck, we can find out why we are here and not in Hell like we should be!" Zabuza orders.

"You want to be in Hell?" Kakashi asks in surprise.

Zabuza glares, "Of course not, you moron! But at least in Hell I know where I am and what to expect! Let's go, Haku. The copy nin will join us in his own time. Haku?"

The young ninja starts swaying and says in a sing-song voice, "The two heads are one, their eyes glow bright!"

The older missing ninja shakes his ward, "Haku! Are you all right?" She seems to break out of whatever trance she was in.

"Is something wrong?" she asks.

Kakashi says, "You said 'the two heads are one, their eyes glow bright'. What did you mean by that?"

"I have no idea," Haku shrugs. "I must have zoned out for a few seconds."

The two rogue ninja leap onto the rooftops and break off into a sprint; non-ninja miss them completely. Kakashi sighs and runs after them.

Sebon needles disable any creatures that cross their path. Haku halts and shoots a sebon at an obscured figure in the shadows. Unlike the other creatures that crossed their path, this person deflects it with a kunai and steps into the view of the street light. "Another Konoha headband," the apprentice mutters to her master.

"I can see that, Haku," the Demon of the Mist replies. "Who are you, blonde?"

The girl steps into a defensive stance. "Watch it! You almost cut my hair!" The missing nin stare at her in disbelief. "Anyways, my name is Ino!" She notices Zabuza's headband. "Wait! You're Mist Ninja!" She flips her ponytail over her shoulder and down her back; the young ninja draws a second kunai.

"Ino, it's okay. Stand down," Kakashi commands as he reaches them.

The vain ninja squeals, "Kakashi-sensei! Where is your team and why are you with these Mist ninja?"

"None of us are here of our own free will. I have no idea where my team is, and these two are the only other ninja I've seen around here. I'm starting to think that something intelligent is responsible for this." Kakashi says with his eyebrow raised.

Zabuza gives a barely perceptible nod; Haku slides her sebon into her equipment pouches. "Another one of your Konoha brats?" Zabuza grunts with one hand on his huge sword.

"Yes, Zabuza, she is one of ours. She will be joining us until we can get out of here," the Jonin explains. The long-haired blonde frowns in disapproval.

"Zabuza? That name sounds familiar," she says slowly.

The man growls, "I am Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist. Got it?" Ino jumps a little in recognition.

Haku states, "Good. Shall we move on?" Zabuza nods and they take off as Ino and Kakashi hurriedly follow their lead. Ino shouts after them, "Hey! Aren't you two dead?"

Haku calls over her shoulder, "We get that a lot."

"Kakashi-sensei, why are we letting them go in front?" Ino whispers.

Kakashi's eye curves upwards into his well-known Eye-Smile and he says quietly, "With them in front, we can keep an eye on them. Also, we are in unfamiliar territory. If anything attacks us, they will get attacked first and give us time to prepare. And lastly, they are missing nin who are used to traveling in unfamiliar territory. We can use their experience to our advantage." Ino's frown shows that she understands, though she still dislikes the idea of working with criminals.

**At Gaara's Location:  
**  
The red-haired boy slowly strolls through the streets, his sand automatically tossing any attackers into nearby trees. "Strange place," he murmurs.

"Gaara!" Kankuro exclaims as he runs up to his younger brother. "There you are! We felt your chakra flare."

Gaara mumbles, "My chakra flared? Interesting."

The flute-toting sound ninja scoffs, "This is Gaara of the Sand? He doesn't look like much to me." Kankuro glances back and forth at his formerly crazy brother and Tayuya.

"Yes," Gaara states in a monotone voice. "What is this place?"

Kankuro groans, "We have no idea whatsoever!" Gaara ignores him and stares at the young woman.

"What are you staring at, raccoon boy?" she snaps.

He tilts his head and mutters, "Your hair is like mine. It makes my demon want to kill you."

Tayuya tightens her grip on her flute, "That is a good thing?"

"Yes," he says after a few moments of silence. "My demon hates beautiful things."

The sound ninja blushes but retorts, "Yeah, whatever! Your girly brother over there said that we can work together to find a way out of here." Kankuro watches their exchange nervously.

"Then come on," states Gaara without emotion. He walks away as his sand slides in circles around him protectively. Tayuya looks to Kankuro for an explanation and he shrugs. Before she can ask, he joins his brother. The flute girl scowls but walks with them.

A few minutes later, they round the corner of a building and almost bump into Sasuke and his companions. Sasuke jumps back with his weapon drawn. "Stay behind me, Sakura," he says, staring at Gaara.

The pink-haired girl needs no encouragement, and Temari draws her fan. "It is nice to see you, sister," Gaara drones. Temari is caught completely off guard, still not used to hearing nice things from her brother. He walks past her and pauses to look at the Uchiha.

"What do you want, monster?" Sasuke grunts, his free hand hovering over his weapons pouch.

"Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara inquires flatly.

Sakura frowns worriedly, "He's not with us, but why do you want him? Do you want another chance to kill him?"

"No," Gaara says, to their surprise. "He made me able to sleep at night. Let's find him." He walks away from them. The two Konoha ninja are confused.

Sasuke says, "But what about me? Don't you want to kill me?"

"Yes," Gaara states again. "But Uzumaki would not like that. Let's find him." He turns back around and continues walking at a leisurely pace. His siblings rush after him with Tayuya. Sakura thinks, 'What is so special about Naruto?' They join the slowly growing group cautiously.

**At Naruto's Location:**

Naruto babbles on loudly despite Neji's constant reprimands. The three girls stay quiet as they listen to their arguing. Naruto lands on the ground and sniffs the air. "I'm hungry!" he declares.

"Naruto, if you keep announcing our presence like this, we could be discovered by Orochimaru!" Neji snaps.

"Hey, Hinata, are you sure we are going the right way?" the blonde shouts.

Hinata stutters nervously, pressing her index fingers together, "Y-yes, I am sure, Naruto."

Nearby, Yugito hears his yelling and draws nearer to investigate. She peers down on him from a roof and Naruto looks up at her. His surprise is quickly replaced by shock as red chakra starts surrounding him instinctively as blue misty chakra flows off of her.

Naruto's whiskers widen and his canines lengthen. He stares at her with blood red eyes. He growls, "What's weird is that I feel like I know you."

"Kyuubi, it has been awhile," Yugito purrs with a deep demonic voice. Naruto's companions watch with a mix of shock and awe at the power the two demon containers are radiating.

Neji states, after he quickly activates his Byukagun, "Her chakra! It is just like Naruto's was at the tournament!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 6:

**At Kakashi's Group's Location:**

The ninja stop as the ground trembles and loud arguing is heard nearby. "What was that, Kakashi-sensei?" Ino says loudly.

Zabuza snaps, "Quiet, girl! It could be hostiles!" Kakashi agrees quietly and gestures that they follow him.

The four ninja cautiously peek around the corner and seeing no danger, they step out into the open. Haku turns at the slight sound of rumbling behind them and manages to let out a warning before barely dodging two high speed slugs. The other three follow suit just in time.

The slugs slide to a stop and a large toad lands nearby, making a crater. "Kakashi!" exclaims the Anbu with surprise. "You're here too?"

"I've been getting that a lot lately," he replies dryly. He notices Tsunade's slug crawling towards them slowly. "Lady Hokage," he greets her respectfully.

Tsunade answers, "So who do you have with you?"

Zabuza looks her over critically and says, "I thought your Hokage was an old man."

Tsunade and Zabuza start a glaring match until Ino pipes up, "A lot of things have changed since you died, Mr. Zabuza."

"That is Master Zabuza to you!" Haku glares at Ino.

Ino retorts airily, "He is no master of mine!"

"Now, ladies, let's play nice," Jiraiya says soothingly.

Tsunade and Ino shout at him simultaneously, "Stay out of this, Jiraiya!" He winces and shuts his mouth.

"I am not a girl!" Haku shouts. Jiraiya gazes at her disbelievingly. Haku frowns and finally admits, "Well, I wasn't a girl when I died!" A lecherous grin slowly crosses Jiraiya's face as thoughts start forming. Kakashi sighs and winces as Tsunade pounds her old teammate into the street.

Zabuza coughs to get their attention, much to the Toad Sannin's relief. "Old man, keep your eyes and hands off of my apprentice. Hokage, what is going on?"

Shizune stares at Zabuza curiously, having heard stories about him. Tsunade frowns, "I am not sure. Considering that you are alive, something is wrong. Have you noticed anything odd?"

"Other than our current location, dual chakras in all our bodies, and our bodies not exactly being normal?" Kakashi comments. "No, not really. Why do you ask?"

The Anbu shakes her head slowly, "Same old Kakashi, no matter what you look like."

"But, I have noticed a trail of the foreign chakra leading somewhere nearby with my sharingan. We were just on our way there to investigate," he finishes.

Tsunade silently exchanges glances with Jiraiya and Shizune before nodding. "Then let's go to the source and see if we can find some answers!"

"What about me and Haku?" inquires Zabuza.

Tsunade glances at him briefly and sits back on her slug, "Do what you will, but you might want to come with us. But if you do come, than I want your word as a ninja that you will not try to kill us and obey me for now."

Zabuza snorts, "I charge by the hour." The ninja all groan and start following Kakashi as he follows the trail. Zabuza and Haku stay near the slugs as they travel.

**At Naruto's Group:**

Naruto eyes the female ninja. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same question, Kyuubi," Yugito purrs. "Who are you on the outside?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, and I am going to be Hokage someday! Why do you keep calling me by the stupid fur ball's name?" Naruto replies irritably.

She grins, "Yugito, container of Nibi. So how did the powerful Nine-tailed Fox get stuck in you?"

Naruto says with annoyance, "Stop talking to me like I'm the fox! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Answer the question, boy," she states.

Naruto glares but responds, "Kyuubi attacked our village and the Fourth Hokage sealed it in me. Happy?"

"I will be," she purrs. "After I kill you."

"And you want to kill me because..?" Naruto asks blankly.

Yugito smiles, "Because Nibi wants a rematch with Kyuubi."

"Maybe later, girl, but right now I want to figure out how to get home! Then we can duke it out," Naruto declares.

Yugito shrugs as the blue chakra slowly retracts back into her body, "That will do."

"So which way do we go?" Naruto asks Hinata.

The rest of the group looks relieved as Hinata replies quietly, "That way." She points in the direction of Ethan's shop. The group slowly approaches the shop while Naruto keeps glancing over at Yugito curiously.

**Gaara's group:  
**  
Gaara glances at the girls in his group curiously as they gossip about the latest fashions and hottest boys in their respective villages while keeping an eye out for trouble. The young sand nin thinks, 'Girls, you can't live with them and…well, you can't live with them.' His sand starts to get restless around him. He squints a little at the nearing group of people.

"Hey, it's that Uzumaki guy!" Kankuro exclaims. He leaps ahead with Sasuke. Impatient for the others to follow, Gaara's sand flows under them and lifts them off the ground, carrying them towards Naruto's group.

Sasuke lands next to his teammate with Kankuro, Sakura lands right behind them. "Hey, dope," Sasuke says. "It was a pain to find you!"

Yugito and Gaara silently size each other up as the teammates greet each other. "Later," Gaara states. The tan-skinned demon container grins and nods quickly, forcing herself to calm down from the prospect of fighting Shukaku.

The two demon containers turn to the group just in time to see Naruto being slammed into the ground by Sakura for saying something stupid.

"Why does he put up with that?" Yugito asks. Gaara shrugs as Naruto jumps to his feet, rubbing the large lump on his head.

Neji intones while staring neutrally at the Uchiha, "Where were you going?"

"There was a strange chakra trail we were following. It leads into that shop," Sasuke answers, gesturing to Ethan's costume shop.

"We were about to investigate the same trail," Neji replies. The two prodigies walk side by side towards the shop with the others following close behind. Anko and Tenten visually examine the other villages' female nin, assessing what it would take to put both down if needed.

**Jiraiya's Team's Location:**

The toad Sannin attempts to write small notes for his newest book, but each time he jots a note down, Tsunade glares at him dangerously. He quickly puts the notepad away, only to pull it out again when she is not looking.

The Anbu jumps from the airborne toad and lands gracefully with Kakashi behind the large group of Genin and Jonin ninja. Anko, Gaara, and Yugito immediately appear in front of her with their weapons drawn, Gaara's sand churning at his feet defensively. "We have been searching for more ninja. We didn't count on finding so many of you!" the Anbu says quickly.

Kakashi looks over the group and then back to his book. "Hello, Team 7, and others," he greets with a bored tone.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura exclaim and Sasuke just grunts.

A moment later, a large toad lands behind the two Jonin, and two slugs slide up with their passengers. Tsunade and Shizune quickly take in the group and dismount the slugs. Jiraiya yells, "Hey, brat! Popular with the ladies I see!" when he notices Yugito glancing at Naruto. The cat-container glares dangerously at the Sannin as Naruto loudly protests. Hinata blushes profusely, but as usual, Naruto does not notice it.

"Silence!" Tsunade commands. The noisy group falls silent. "Much better," she states. "Now, what are you all doing here and how did you get here?"

The children shrug and Anko says, "Something about weird chakra. According to the Neji Hyuga, Orochimaru is here too but seemed as confused as we are." She shivers.

Tsunade and Jiraiya both frown deeply at the new information. "Following the strange chakra trail then?" Zabuza grunts. Naruto and Sakura gasp when they see him but stay quiet at a look from their teacher.

"Yes," Gaara mutters. "What of it?" Tsunade recognizes the boy from her files and clenches her fist causing the Anbu to tense up and move her hand towards her sword a little bit.

Haku nods to Naruto with a smile and says, "By the way, when I told you that I was a boy, I was telling the truth at the time."

Naruto stares at her for a few seconds and then exclaims, "You're a girl now? You look the same to me!" Sakura moves to punch him again but is stopped when her wrist is caught. She looks over her shoulder and sees Haku, holding a sebon in her free hand.

"He may be loud, but he tried to kill me to protect you. Think about that the next time you feel the urge to pummel him, Pinky," she says slowly and very coldly.

Zabuza says, "Haku, come." She disappears and reappears next to her master, still holding the sebon at her side and glaring at Sakura.

"About the weird chakra?" Ino inquires loudly, trying to get the conversation back on track.

Kakashi nods, "It is coming from the store. I propose we investigate."

"Oh, indeed we shall, won't we, Tsunade?" an eerily familiar voice coos. Jiraiya glares at his old teammate hatefully.

"What do you want, Orochimaru?" he growls.

The snake Sannin grins while leaning out the shadow of a roof overhang. "Exactly what you want, dear Jiraiya. A chance to find out what we are doing here and how to explain it. Although, I suppose you two probably want to find a way to reverse it." The silent glares of his teammates give him his answer. "Good," he continues, "but, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to stop it."

"These are not our bodies, Orochimaru!" Tsunade snaps. "This is not our world! We have no right to be here!"

The snake Sannin's creepy grin widens, "Of course that is true. We are in young, healthy bodies ready to do whatever we wish! My arms are healed, and we are all young again. If this ends, we will return to the way it was. Surely it's better if I stay in this world away from your precious village? Unable to cause harm to it and all its simple-minded inhabitants."

"And allow you to roam free here? Not a chance!" Anko inserts angrily. Sasuke gazes at Orochimaru neutrally, but his thoughts race as he rubs his curse mark absently. Kakashi and Sakura both notice his unconscious reaction.

Orochimaru coos, "Oh, little Anko, so good to see you so soon after our little discussion in the forest. Perhaps you would like to join me in this new world? I sense that your curse mark is not fully in affect here. I know that you sense it too. Nobody hates you here or mistrusts you. You can have a fresh start. Doesn't that sound appealing?"

Anko frowns darkly and retorts, "Not if it involves leaving you alive!"

He turns back to his fellow Sannin, "Tsunade, Jiraiya, we have young bodies again. Isn't that what you want? Without all the painful memories that the old village reminds you of constantly?"

Jiraiya replies slowly, "We will stop whatever is happening here right now."

Frowning, Orochimaru slowly starts walking towards them with his hands at his side, "Even if you find its source, there is no guarantee that there is a way to stop it."

Tsunade scoffs, "And you call yourself a genius? Of course that could be one of the outcomes. There are also other options, Orochimaru. Sure we could be stuck here, but we could also go back, leaving these bodies with few memories of us. Or their bodies could retain everything that happened tonight."

"But there is only one way to find out," Jiraiya smiles slowly, much to Orochimaru's displeasure.

"Naturally," Orochimaru says spitefully. "Only idealistic fools like you two would waste such a grand opportunity like the one we are in."

Tsunade continues watching Orochimaru but says to the people surrounding her, "Kakashi, Tenten, Anko, Ino, Neji; go inside and find the source and see if there is a way to end this."

Orochimaru takes another step forward and waves a finger at them, "Nuh-uh uh, that would be a poor decision."

Naruto exclaims loudly, "Grandma Tsunade and Pervy Sage pounded you last time you fought them! You had to run away with your tail between your legs! And they have lots of help this time!"

Jiraiya raises an eyebrow, impressed with Naruto's reasoning for a change. "The brat has a point. Tsunade and I are both at full strength."

"So am I," Orochimaru says evenly, glaring at Naruto. "You may have friends, but…" he trails off. "Tayuya!" he calls. She tenses her legs in preparation to leap to his side when in the back of her mind a voice screams, "Don't go with him! Do you think he'll take care of you after what he did to Rin and her teammates? You can feel the evil radiating off of him!" She hesitates, quickly suppressing the voice.

"Tayuya, come to me!" Orochimaru says impatiently.

She looks down guiltily as Tsunade gazes at her. She snaps her fingers, "I knew I recognized you! You are one of the Sound Four! The personal bodyguards of Orochimaru!"

Gaara says nothing but looks at the flute-wielder with a raised eyebrow. "It's true," she mutters. Without another word, she leaps to Orochimaru's side while lifting her flute to her lips.  
Orochimaru looks down at her suspiciously. She says quietly, "Sorry, master, I am still getting used to this body."

"Well, get used to it quickly," he replies coldly.

Anko says, "Even with her help, you won't be able to stop us."

"Are you sure?" he drolls lazily. Dozens of demons, vampires, and possessed people file out of the shadows of the alleyways and rooftops, surrounding them and around him protectively. Darth Vader is one of the people. He points to Naruto and states, "You are dead this time!"

Jiraiya smirks, "Orochimaru, please. I've seen these creatures in action. They won't even slow us down."

"Don't be so sure," the Snake Sannin says. "I developed a jutsu which allows the transfer of some of my knowledge to the people of my choosing while jumpstarting their chakra networks to the average level of Chunin." The genin frown but grip their kunais with more determination. Naruto glares back at Darth Vader, Hinata standing quietly and unnoticed at his side while dropping into a Jyuken stance.

Orochimaru smiles evilly and says, "Shall we begin?"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 7:

Neji shouts, "Byukagun!" as his veins around his eyes bulge. He scans Orochimaru's minions and states, "Several of the enemies have dual chakra, but most of them are naturally evil."

Tsunade frowns, "Change of plans. Neji, stay here and tell us which ones are safe to kill. The rest of you go in as planned. Hinata and Sasuke, use your eyes to identify the right ones. Disable the ones with dual chakra, tie them up, and kill the rest. Sakura, take the captured ones and get them away from here. Yugito, guard Sakura! Now go!"

"Tenten!" Kakashi orders, "Clear a path to our destination!" The weapons mistress nods quickly and slides a medium-sized scroll from her belt. She flips it open, cuts her finger, and leaves a long streak of blood over the writing. Dozens of randomly assorted sharp objects appear and she throws them at the creatures blocking their path. The demons and vampires dive for cover as the ninja run past surrounded by Tenten's weapons.

Scowling, Orochimaru shouts furiously, "You fools! Go after them! Mere knives won't kill you!"

A demon replies as he staggers to his feet, "Sure they won't kill us, but did you see that Scythe?"

"I wouldn't allow myself to be distracted right now if I were you!" a voice calls to the Snake Sannin. He turns and jumps back just in time to avoid Tsunade's fist which leaves a crater where he was standing.

Running forward, Jiraiya yells as he finishes hand signs, "Earth Style: Stone Scattershot!" The ground cracks open and a boulder launches at Orochimaru.

The snake Sannin runs through a flurry of hand signs and hisses, "Earth Style: Earth Wall!" A thick earth wall rises up in front of Orochimaru as the boulder breaks up into dozens of smaller pieces. He grins as the stones are blocked by the wall, only for it to shatter from the fist of Tsunade as she leaps through the wall. Orochimaru dodges her powerful fist just in time, jumping back towards his minions.

The minions stare at her sheer strength and Orochimaru sputters, "Don't just stand there! Attack!" When they hesitate, he shouts, "Now, before I attack you myself!" The creatures yell their various battle cries as they charge in at all sides around the ninja.

Kakashi's group reaches the shop's door as the battle cries start. The copy nin orders, "Anko, Tenten, guard the door. Don't let anyone through no matter what!" They nod quickly and take up defensive stances in front of the door. Kakashi and Ino enter the store cautiously. He raises his forehead protector and sees a bright surge of strange chakra surge nearby.

Back at the fight, chaos reigns. The ninja engage the strange creatures as the Sannin duke it out, jutsus flying everywhere. Through the fierce combat, the dark lord of the Sith fights his way slowly and purposefully towards the object of his hatred: Naruto.

Darth Vader remembers what Orochimaru told him and slowly runs through a series of hand signs, thinking about how pointless the hand signs are. He murmurs, "Lightning Style: Death Bolt!" He raises his hand to the sky and a large bolt of lightning shoots out of the sky towards Naruto.

A vampire punches Naruto back, accidentally getting in the way of the lightning bolt. The clumsy ninja falls onto the ground and stares at his opponent who poofs into a pile of dust. "Wow, that was close!" he says loudly.

"I will get you this time, vermin!" shouts Vader furiously.

Hinata calls, "Be careful, Naruto! You can't kill him! He has dual chakra!"

"Drat!" Naruto shouts as he rolls under the pitchfork of a red demon.

Darth Vader roars, "Get out of my way! This one is mine to kill!" He force throws him across the street away from Naruto.

"Thanks! I think," says Naruto, scratching his head.

"Now you die!" Vader yells as he charges at Naruto with his lightsaber raised.

"I guess not then!" Naruto replies. He glares at the Sith Lord and charges at him while shouting, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Five Narutos appear around Naruto and continue charging with him.

Nearby, vampires and demons converge on Neji. He slowly smiles, Kankuro quickly getting the creeps at the unnatural looking smile. Neji yells, "Rotation!" He spins in a circle as chakra visibly surrounds him, sending them flying. Kankuro barely ducks under the flying opponents.

"Remind me not to get on his bad side," the puppet user mutters as he turns back to his own fight. He smirks, "And now to have some fun!" He unwraps his two puppets from his back and yells, "Who wants a piece of me?" Several ignorant demons and creatures roar in response and run at him, his grin slowly growing with each step they take.

Meanwhile, Gaara stands still with his arms crossed while his sand casually tosses random creatures into the air away from him. "Weird people," he mutters, watching the creatures running at him again. "And very slow learners."

Several feet away, a pack of demons and vampires are surrounded by ice mirrors. Haku appears in each mirror with her mask on. "Master Zabuza, what about these vermin?" she calls.

Zabuza glances to Hinata who nods to him silently before taking out her own opponent. "Do it, Haku!" he shouts.

A slow grin crosses her face, despite the fact that the enemy can't see it. "Goodbye, creatures," she murmurs. Sebon fly into the pack from all directions. Several loud cries of pain escape the mirror prison. The mirrors slowly melt into puddles of water around Haku; her opponents look like pincushions on a bad day, all the vampires already having poofed out of existence leaving sebon needles. She collects her weapons and looks over the demon corpses with disgust.

Zabuza swings his massive sword at a storm trooper, slicing the blaster in half. Hinata cries out, "Not that one!" He twists his sword at the last moment before it hits the storm trooper, allowing the blunt side to send the storm trooper flying into a mummy.

"Picky, picky," the missing nin growls unhappily as he jumps into another fight eagerly.

**Inside the store:**

Kakashi covers his sharingan eye quickly as the surge occurs. "Be careful, Ino," he warns.

The blonde nods quickly, moving closer to the disturbance. They hesitantly push open the door with kunai ready. Ethan sits against the wall wearing a long dark robe. "Ah, you are here at last. I'm surprised Ripper isn't here to try to punish me. I heard he lived here in town." The ninja tense but Ethan ignores them.

"You are the one causing all this chaos, aren't you?" accuses Ino as she flips her hair back.

Ethan smiles and stands, "Ah yes, the ditzy blonde. I am so glad to see that you are enjoying your costume. Did it fit well? On second thought, I guess it did. In any case you got smarter. You couldn't have gotten any dumber." He smirks at Ino's shocked expression.

"Costumes?" Kakashi snaps. "What costumes?"

The shopkeeper's eyes practically glow with excitement. "It worked better than I thought! Janus has blessed me tonight."

A split second later he is pinned against the wall with a knife to his throat. "I'm going to make you unblessed if you don't stop whatever is causing this," mutters Kakashi darkly.

"Kakashi-sensei," begins Ino.

"Not now," he barks. The copy nin lifts his forehead protector again and looks into Ethan's eyes. "Now tell us before I get angry."

"You aren't perchance the Hulk, are you?" Ethan asks curiously. "He usually is the one talking about getting angry."

Kakashi tightens his grip on his kunai before slipping it back into his pocket, one hand still pinning Ethan to the wall. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way." The jonin punches Ethan in the gut and flips him onto the ground.

Ethan groans, "You'll have to do better than that, boy."

"You're right. I don't have time for this either," Kakashi replies. He drops to one knee, grinding it roughly into Ethan's stomach. He grabs onto Ethan's collar, pulling his face up against his waiting fist several times. Kakashi inspects Ethan's bleeding nose and broken lip with satisfaction. Gazing deep into Ethan's eyes, Kakashi says loudly, "Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!" Ethan's eyes widen and his body becomes completely stiff in terror. Ino notices a dark spot growing on the front of his pants.

"Ewww! Kakashi-sensei, was that necessary?" she whines.

"Ino, I'm busy!" he answers with irritation. Turning back to his prisoner, Kakashi growls, "Ready to tell me how to end this, before I get unpleasant?"

Ethan looks up at him wide eyed, "The statue! Break the statue! No more!" He presses his body tight against the hard floor, trying to get away from his tormentor.

Kakashi lifts Ethan by his throat and pins him to the wall again. "We will find out if you are lying. If you are, I will get very displeased. Ino, break the statue."

Ino glances over the two faced statue. "It doesn't look like much," she comments. "And it definitely lacks in the looks department."

"Just break it!" Ethan nearly yells with alarm. She shrugs and pushes the stone bust onto the ground, shattering it.

**Back outside:**

The battle slowly winds down. Sakura lands next to two unconscious creatures tied in ninja wire, panting slightly. "What's the matter? Getting tired, pinky?" Yugito sneers. The pink haired ninja lifts the two monsters and jumps towards the already large pile of unconscious or groaning creatures, having learned already to ignore the cat container.

As she touches down at the disposal site, Naruto appears beside her with four clones and a tied up Vader. He holds up the lightsaber and grins, "I got a souvenir!"

Sakura is too tired to bash him upside the head, but gives him a hard poke on the forehead, making him fall backwards onto the ground. "Just give me the prisoner, Naruto," she growls, glaring at the clones. The clones glance at each other worriedly then quickly hand her the large Sith Lord. "Better!" she states, tossing Vader over her shoulder onto the pile.

Naruto looks around the battlefield but only sees Orochimaru and Tayuya left, the snake Sannin still trading blows with his fellow Sannin. Naruto and Sakura run back to the battlefield to help any comrades in any way they can with Yugito right behind them.

The flute-wielding ninja plays her haunting melody as her Doki block wind strikes and poisoned sebon from Temari and Shizune, her second stage curse seal having been activated just as they attacked her in the beginning of the battle. Temari dodges the large club of one of the Doki with her frustration growing at her inability to use large jutsu because of the civilian homes in the area. Something in her, along with a firm order from Tsunade, wouldn't allow her to do it. The persistent voice, that found a way back into her head screams, "Orochimaru can't help you! If you give up, they might accept your surrender!"

"Not likely," Tayuya thinks back bitterly.

The voice insists, "Well these people are my friends! I will not let you hurt them!" Tayuya would have rolled her eyes if she weren't so busy keeping track of her opponents.

"Friends only betray you in the end," Tayuya mentally retorts, images of her past flashing through her mind.

The voice gets quieter but says, "Even Gaara? Did you see the look in his eye when you switched sides?"

Tayuya mutters back to the voice as she continues to play her flute, "Shut up! You don't know anything about me! Orochimaru gave me a purpose! He accepted me when everyone else left me!"

"Gaara wouldn't have," the voice says stubbornly. "And neither would any of his friends. I'm positive of that much!"

Tayuya remembers the look in his eye and the looks on the others' faces and thinks back, "Shut up before you get us both killed." A single tear rolls down her cheek as her Doki swings at Temari again. "Besides, it's too late for me," she finishes sadly.

The voice replies softly, "It's never too late to do the right thing."

Suddenly, she senses something behind her. She turned quickly and her eyes get wide as a wave of sand roars towards her!

Meanwhile, the Sannin have taken a brief pause in the fight. All three have cuts and bruises visible on their faces. Jiraiya quickly glances around and smiles widely at Orochimaru. "It seems that your plan failed! Even though you gave all that ability and knowledge to those creatures, they didn't have the experience needed to apply it usefully. Some of them didn't even use it at all!" he taunts.

Orochimaru glares at his former teammate. "I guess I'll just have to finish you all off now!"

Jiraiya's grin grows even wider, "Good! Since you're going all out, so will we!" Tsunade nods in agreement, releasing the chakra from her Secret Mark Seal on her forehead. The toad Sannin looks over at her worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," assures Tsunade, her eyes never leaving Orochimaru.

Jiraiya shrugs, "If you say so." He refocuses on his treacherous former teammate and grins again. "I've been waiting for awhile to use this on you!" He begins his technique. Orochimaru tenses, ready to strike at them. Suddenly, they all drop to the ground as a bright flash fills the area originating from Ethan's shop. The flash remains visible only to those with high level magical abilities and eye-based bloodlines. The flash happens so fast that all the ninja barely have time to react before collapsing to the ground. It expands a full block around the shop in an instant. The flash is sucked back to the focal point. When it gets back, another wave, like the shockwave of an explosion, erupts from the shop, encompassing the entire town almost instantly.

Everyone in Sunnydale being affected by the spell outside of the magical blast zone immediately reverts back to their normal selves.

Angel wakes up wearing his Kakashi costume. He staggers to his feet as he tries to get his bearings. Noticing the broken statue, he mutters, "So it wasn't a dream. Something is different." Angel looks around and notices something strange about his left eye's vision. Still disoriented and not wanting to think about it right now, he subconsciously slides his forehead protector down over his left eye. He hears a moan of someone waking up. He looks down near the statue's remains and sees a beautiful blonde girl. Flashes of the night's events race through his mind in a jumble. Angel shakes his head to clear his thoughts and moves to help her to her feet. They both stagger towards the door, the girl barely conscious. He looks around the store one last time but nobody else is in the store. Outside, he sees several people getting up.

Buffy moans, "What happened?" She holds her head as she sits up. Near her, Amy looks around, wondering why she's holding a flute and why she's covered in sand.

Giles and Joyce slowly approach the group, looking as if they were in a fist fight with Warren right behind them looking confused.

Buffy looks at her mother with wide eyes. "Mom! What happened to you?" she says loudly.

"What do you mean?" Joyce says tiredly.

Buffy points to her chest. "You're huge!"

Giles coughs as he tries to resist a strange urge to reach for a notepad. He regains his composure and calls to the confused children, "It appears something strange happened here tonight!"

"Understatement of the century, Sherlock!" Cordelia exclaims, staring at Joyce while absently flipping a kunai. She notices what she is doing and yanks her hand back, a little freaked out that she's playing with a sharp knife so flippantly. It clatters to the ground.

Giles calls to the group, "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, it would be best for us to meet to find out what went on here. Unfortunately, we need to untie those people up on the roof, find all the children that were in your groups, and get them home. By the time you get done with that, it'll be late. Plus, I don't know about you, but with all we went through tonight, I am sure that we are all very tired." They all nod in agreement at his last statement. "I suggest we meet around 9am tomorrow in the school library, since it's Saturday and it will be unoccupied, to try to figure out everything that happened and any and all changes that took place."

The children disperse to find their groups, several of them instinctively jumping from roof to roof looking for them. Amazingly, they manage to round up the other children and get them home safely within the hour. They return to their respective homes where they all promptly fall asleep in their beds, exhausted by the night's events.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 8:

**At the Rosenburg House the Next Morning:**

Sunlight pours through Willow's window, waking her up. She groans but drags herself out of bed and down the stairs to the kitchen. Her parents are already at the table drinking coffee and eating their breakfast. Willow sits in her usual chair and puts an egg and hashbrown onto her plate that is set out for her. "Morning," she mutters tiredly.

"Did you have a fun time trick-or-treating, dear?" her mother says politely. Willow shrugs as flashbacks of the previous night flash through her mind. "I cannot understand why teenagers would dress up as fictional characters. Do you suppose that it is some sort of rite of passage in the modern generation?"

The father sips his coffee and replies, "It is highly probably. The consistency of dressing up in ridiculous looking costumes has skyrocketed in recent years, according to the statistics." Willow's eye twitches as she eats her eggs. "But, the allure of sweets probably plays a large role in their motivation for trick-or-treating."

"That does not explain the costumes, dear," Willow's mother points out, neatly cutting her egg into bite-sized pieces.

"Maybe we just want to have fun?" Willow suggests.

The father considers it briefly and answers, "That is improbable. There are many things that children consider fun and not fun, and the results vary from child to child. The odds of all the children in the United States participating in the same event on the same day for 'fun' is so small that even the most experienced gambler wouldn't take the bet."

Willow finishes off her egg and slices her hashbrown in half, leaving a thin line on the plate. She says quietly, "If you spent more time with your daughter, instead of gallivanting all over the world analyzing the minds of children, you would know a thing or two about this current generation."

"What was that, Willow?" the mother asks with a smile.

Willow glares at her, "I said, that you two spend more time with your jobs than you do trying to raise your daughter. You are lousy parents." She hears a voice in the back of her head shout, "Yeah! That's right!"

"Willow, are you feeling well?" her father asks, frowning at her outburst.

"I'm better than I have been in a long time, no thanks to you!" she retorts, finishing off her hashbrown. "You don't know anything about me, and I am your own daughter!"

The parents look at each other questioningly, and the mother says hesitantly, "It might be a phase she's going through."

Willow sighs loudly and marches from the table. "I've got to go somewhere," she calls over her shoulder and slams the door behind her, the wall rattling from the force of it. "Yes, dear, I definitely think it is the rebellious phase that we have heard so much about." A moment later, Willow's plate cracks in half along the line that the knife made.

**At Xander's House:**

Xander hears his alarm clock going off and tosses a kunai into the evil device, effectively silencing it forever. "Stupid torture device," he mutters sleepily. He sits up then realizes what he just did. "Ooops."

As he dresses for the day, he instinctively picks up his forehead protector and pauses. The dark-haired young man remembers the previous night as he examines the leaf symbol in the metal. "Sasuke really had issues," he thinks out loud, absently picking up and strapping on his pack of kunai to his leg. He carefully folds the headband and slides it into his pocket. He hears the loud drunken shouts of his dad. "And so do I," he states. "Time to deal with them. Now."

"Boy! Get down here and clean up this mess!" shouts Tony. Xander appears at the top of the stairs with a neutral expression on his face. "Clean up this pig sty, lazy brat!"

Xander calmly walks down the stairs. "No, Tony, I won't be your servant or punching bag today." He smiles pleasantly at the large man, stopping in front of him with his hands in his pockets. Listening carefully, he can hear his mother crying in the next room. "Thought as much," he mutters.

The fat man swings his fist down at the teenager when the Sharingan activates. Things begin going in slow motion. Xander smiles wider and dodges the punch with ease, stepping off to the side and roundhouse kicks the drunk in the stomach. He grabs his shoulder and pushes him to his knees, delivering a strong blow to his neck's pressure point. Tony keels onto his stomach, trying to get his breath that was knocked out of him. Xander kicks him in the face, making him fall onto his back. He leans over him and stabs the floor next to Tony's head with kunai. "Listen carefully, Tony," he says threateningly. "You will leave this house by the time I get back. You will not touch me or my mother ever again or you will not survive the day that I hear it. Do you got that?" Tony stares at the normally weak boy and nods quickly. "Good, I would hate to dirty my knives with scum like you. Now get out!" He pulls the kunai from the floor and watches with a lot of satisfaction as Tony staggers to his feet and stumbles out the front door as fast as he can.

"Mom, I'll be back in awhile to check on you. I'm going to meet up with a few of my friends, okay?" he calls. He barely hears her response then leaves the house.

**At the Summer's House:**

Joyce stumbles into the kitchen and sits down at the table. "I need a drink," she moans, dropping her forehead against the table. Buffy and Dawn look at their mom and then look at each other.

"Um…Mom, are you okay?" Dawn asks, trying to fight an urge to stutter.

Joyce glares at her, barely lifting her forehead from the wood, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to drink myself into oblivion, gamble all our life savings away along with the house, and then go around the state piling gigantic debts that I have no hope of ever paying; and to make matters worse, I have to get a whole new wardrobe! Other than that, I'm fine!"

Buffy glances down at her tight clothes and replies, "You're not the only one who needs to get a new wardrobe, mom."

Joyce turns her head to look at Buffy. "Is it just me feeling like I have a hangover, or are you taller?"

"Yep! I'm taller…and bigger everywhere else," says Buffy cheerfully. Her younger sister rolls her eyes. Joyce glances down at her own new figure and sighs.

She murmurs, "I need a new wardrobe, and Jiraiya's here too." Her forehead hits the table again. "Just what Sunnydale needs, a self proclaimed super pervert." Dawn's pale eyes narrow at the statement.

"Who is this super pervert?" she asks innocently.

Buffy covers her mom's mouth quickly, "No need to worry about it, Dawnie. And besides, he isn't naturally like that! I'm sure he won't let it influence him." She thinks, "I hope." She notices the time and says, "I'd better get going. I was going to meet up with Willow and Xander early so we can go to the library together."

"We're all going to the same place anyways, so would you like a ride?" Joyce says.

Buffy sets her fan down with a loud clunk. "No thanks, mom. I've got that covered."

Joyce calls as she walks out the door, "And when the meeting is over, we're going to discuss what you've been doing at night!" Buffy freezes for a second.

"What are you talking about, mom?" she says as innocently as she can.

Joyce steeples her fingers and stares at her daughter intently. "You may have been able to put that one over on the old Joyce, but not over one of the Sannin, dear." Buffy lets out a mournful sigh and walks away to meet her friends. Once she is out of earshot, Joyce smiles widely, "For some reason, that felt good!"

Dawn's forehead hits the table loudly. "Dawn, is something wrong?" Joyce inquires. She's answered with another thunk on the table.

"The maturity of my family never ceases to amaze me," she mutters, finally having stopped banging her head against the table.

**Outside Sunnydale High School:**

Buffy, Willow, and Xander arrive at the same time. Willow says, "Wow, we have good timing!"

"No, we're just on time," Xander replies dryly. "But, that could count as good timing."

Buffy smiles widely as she walks up to them, her large fan strapped across her back. Xander turns to look at his friend and his jaw drops. Willow lifts his jaw shut. "Xander, she's Buffy. Not Temari. Buffy. She's dating Angel," Willow whispers to him.

Xander scowls and folds his arms over his chest, "Oh yeah." He smiles, "Morning, Buffy."

Buffy grabs them both by the arm and exclaims, "Well, let's not keep Giles waiting, shall we? Even if we're early." They nod in agreement and they march into the school. They walk straight towards the library.

As they near it, a familiar voice screeches, "Summers!" The trio turns around slowly to see Principal Snyder. "What are you doing here? Are you planning on causing more trouble like last night?" He smiles slowly. "Vandalism! Or burning down the school! Yes, that's more your style, isn't it, Summers?"

He freezes in place as a blast of killer intent hits him like a ton of bricks. Buffy glares at the troll-like man while Willow and Xander step away from her carefully. "Where you saying something, Snyder?" she says very slowly, the killer intent rising.

Snyder stares at her in terror, managing to stammer, "N-no! I just remembered I have a meeting to go to…or something. I had better not see you around here again when school isn't in session!" With that, he runs away like the devil himself was chasing him, but he's moving awkwardly.

Willow watches him go and turns to the others. "Did you see that?"

The dark-haired young man raises an eyebrow, "Was it just me, or did Snyder wet his pants?"

Buffy glances at both of them, than at the corner that Snyder retreated to. "It wasn't just you." She smiles as the killer intent dissipates, much to their relief. "Let's go!" They walk to the library.

Xander whispers to Willow, "Remind me never to get her mad at me."

"Ditto!" Willow replies in a loud whisper.

The trio turns around and walks into the library. Jenny Calendar sits with Kendra at the table.

Giles wanders from his office, reading a book. He says without looking up, "I'm glad you made it. Who was responsible for the killer intent spike?"

"It was Buffy. Snyder was in the hall," Xander replies quickly, pointing to Buffy.

Giles looks up from his book, "Is he still alive?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Let's just say, he won't be bothering any of us for awhile," Willow says with a confident smile.

Xander glances around the room briefly and asks Giles, "Where's Tara?"

"Oh, she's around here somewhere," Giles responds, waving his hand around as he talks.

They sit down next to Kendra when the Nerd Trio walk in chattering in geek babble. Jonathan nods at the group as he continues talking. Warren gives Giles a sly smile but doesn't stop the geek babble.

Andrew notices Willow and hurries over to her, "Hey! You look just like Sakura! Is your hair naturally pink? Why are you not saying anything? Are you shy? Sakura is anything but shy!"

Something clicks in her mind and Willow shouts, "Naruto!" Her fist sends him face-first into the floor. "S-sorry!" she exclaims when she realizes what she just did. "I don't know what came over me!"

"It's okay," Andrew replies weakly as he pulls himself off the floor. "In a way, it feels very familiar. I'm Andrew by the way."

Jonathan steps forward calmly and says, "I am Jonathan. I went as Neji Hyuga. It is a pleasure to meet you." Giles notices with interest that Jonathan appears to be blind. Instinctively, he connects Hyuga with the eyes.

"I am Warren," says Warren slowly with a grin. He chuckles a little and continues, "I went as Orochimaru the Snake Sannin."

Xander stands and glares at him. "What were you thinking going as Orochimaru?" he shouts, his curse mark throbbing on his neck.

Warren looks Xander over and smiles wider, "You went as Sasuke Uchiha, didn't you? I would recognize you anywhere."

"Answer my question!" snaps Xander irritably.

"It's very simple," Warren replies, still smiling. The others cannot help but be reminded of a snake's smile. "I knew something was off about this town, but I never imagined something like this would happen. What's wrong with this town, out of curiosity?"

Giles sighs and answers, "Sit down and I'll explain everything once more people arrive." Over the next several minutes, people from Halloween trickle into the room. Around 9pm, Joyce and Dawn enter the room.

Joyce pauses near the table and says with authority, "You can come out now." Tara materializes behind her in a kneeling position, wearing her ANBU mask and sword.

"Sorry, Lady Hokage," Tara says respectfully.

Joyce turns around and looks down at her. "I am not the Hokage!"

"Sorry, Ma'am," Tara says with the same amount of respect.

"Call me Joyce. Ma'am is too formal," says Joyce with a smile. "And stand up!"

"Yes, Ma'am, Joyce!" Tara replies quickly, jumping to her feet. Giles appears behind her and gestures to the table.

"Come sit down, Tara," Giles whispers. She hesitates but complies with a nod from the older woman.

Joyce glances at him curiously, "Didn't you try to stop her from doing that?"

"She wouldn't come out of hiding! Nothing I said would convince her otherwise," Giles explains. Joyce eyes his pocket suspiciously, a small notebook barely visible. "What?" he asks innocently. She raises an eyebrow and cracks her knuckles, gesturing to the notebook with her eyes. He follows her gaze and pales. "It's not what it looks like! I haven't written any perverted anything! They are actually ninja techniques!" She stares at him for a minute or two more than looks away, much to his relief. He thinks to himself, "Though, I did have to stop myself several times from writing more than a page of Icha Icha Paradise."

The librarian looks at his watch, "Okay, it's time to begin."

"Wait a second," exclaims Buffy, "Where's Angel?" Xander laughs quietly. "What is so funny, Xander?"

Xander manages to say between laughs, "He went as Kakashi! Remember what he's known for?"

"The Sharingan Eye?" Buffy shrugs.

Andrew spouts off, "He's always two hours late for everything! And he loves his Icha Icha books that Pervy Sage wrote." Giles scowls but bites his tongue to refrain from saying anything.

The blonde young woman turns to Xander slowly, unhooking the strap around her fan. "You made Angel into a pervert?" she asks very calmly. He gulps at the amount of killer intent rolling off of her.

Joyce clears her throat, saving Xander's life. "We can't wait for him forever. The meeting starts now." Giles nods in agreement.

"Now that we are mostly all here," Giles says to the group. "Have any of you noticed any physical changes since Halloween?" All the men's eyes trail to Joyce's chest, although they quickly look away from more killer intent rolling off of Buffy.

Joyce looks around at them, "What?"

The librarian sighs and clears his throat to get their attention again, "Any physical changes, other than Mrs. Summers?"

Larry leans over to Buffy, "That's your mom?" She looks over the football player who is wearing a hoodie and nods hesitantly. "She's hot!" A moment later, Larry is lying on the floor with a large bump on his head.

"Larry," she warns dangerously, "You went as Kankuro, right?" He nods quickly and her smile grows. "Good! Than you know that I went as Temari, right?" All color drains from his face. "Now get in your chair and shut up." He scrambles into his chair and keeps his jaw tightly shut.

Giles waves his hand to get their attention once again. "As I was saying! Any other changes?"

Buffy calls happily, "I got Temari's body!" Larry opens his mouth but quickly shuts it again at a glance from Buffy that promises pain if he says anything.

(Author's note: Think Buffy's head on Temari's body, only an inch or two shorter.)

Jonathan and Dawn exchange glances. The young man says, his eyes not leaving Dawn, "It would seem that…"

"Dawn," supplies Buffy's younger sister.

"That Dawn and I have retained the Byukagun," Jonathan finishes. He holds up a hand and shouts, "Byukagun!" at the same time as Dawn. The veins around their eyes bulge drastically and they both crack a smile at the startled expressions of the group. They deactivate the Byukagun after a few seconds.

Xander inserts, "Speaking of eye bloodlines." He closes his eyes and opens them again to reveal the spinning red tomes of the Sharingan. Warren's eyes widen with barely concealed interest.

Everyone turns when Angel quickly strolls into the room from the back entrance. "Sorry for being late, I was…" He stops himself and thinks about it for a few seconds. "I can't believe I was going to say that!"

"Say what? That you had to help an old lady across the street?" Andrew offers helpfully.

Willow states, "Or you saw a black cat and had to take the long way around."

Xander smirks and interjects, "Or did you get lost on the road of life?"

Angel looks at the three with surprise and says, "The third one, actually. I had this unexplainable urge to come late. I came as soon as I could, despite the urge." Buffy eyes the pink book in his front pocket.

"Have you had any other urges, Angel?" Buffy says sweetly.

Feeling the now regular sense of killer intent in his direction, he explains, "I haven't touched the book!" The killer intent evaporates into nothing and he thinks, "Well, at least not more than four times…"

Giles inquires, "Angel, why are you wearing the mask?"

He thinks about it again and pulls down the mask. "Some habits are hard to break."

The librarian nods understandingly and says, "Any other changes?"

Angel lifts the forehead protector from his left eye, showing the slowly spinning Sharingan eye. "I seemed to have kept it."

"So the Grand Poof gets to keep the Sharingan. Anything else?" Spike calls from the shadows in the back of the room.

Giles looks over at him with mild distain. "Have you had any changes, Spike?" The blonde man puts his hand under his chin thoughtfully, moving away from Drusilla who is still dressed like Haku, complete with the mask hanging around her neck, and his large sword that is leaning against the wall. He strolls in front of the sun lazily.

Spike smiles, "Oh, I don't know, maybe a few small things." Angel's and everyone else's jaw drops as Drusilla giggles at their gawking.

Read and Review


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 9:

Andrew looks at everyone's staring and asks, "Why are you all gawking at him? Oh, he went as Zabuza! No wonder you're gawking!" He instinctively ducks Willow's fist that barely misses him. "What?"

"No, you idiot!" Willow says loudly.

Giles murmurs, "Oh dear!" Andrew glances over at the librarian, who is cleaning his glasses.

"He's alive!" Willow exclaims.

Andrew stares at her cluelessly, "And why is it a surprise that he's alive?"

The redhead manages to catch her own fist before it can hit Andrew again. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she replies, "He's a vampire!"

Andrew stares at Willow for a few more seconds, looks over at Spike, then back to Willow. "I thought vampires couldn't stand sunlight."

"They can't," Xander says with a frown.

Drusilla drawls with a sing song voice, "The chaos man brought us back, but I miss Miss Edith."

Buffy rolls her eyes, "Great, she's still crazy."

Drusilla skips over to Spike and visibly settles down. A small calm smile crosses her face. "You got to love the Shinobi and their arts." With that, she skips back to the wall and leans against it. She glares at Buffy, "What is the first thing one learns as a Shinobi?"

"Um…" Buffy racks her mind.

Drusilla frowns, "The art of deception. Any ninja knows that!"

"I knew that!" counters Buffy.

Spike laughs, "Of course you did."

Angel stares at Drusilla, "You're sane now?" The smile returns as she meets his gaze. "Yeah, she's sane."

"Wait a second!" Buffy proclaims loudly. "If you two are alive," she turns to Angel. "Than you must be alive too!" He shrugs. "You didn't check?"

"I didn't think to check," he mutters.

Buffy checks his neck and wrist quickly, feeling a pulse. She glomps him and cries happily, "You're alive! We can be together now!"

Joyce frowns, "Together now? Do you mean to tell me that you were dating a vampire?"

"He had a soul!" her daughter protests quickly.

"Essentially, you were dating a corpse," Joyce deadpans.

Buffy smirks, "But he was a really cute corpse!"

Joyce's frown deepens, "We're going to have a talk about this later, young lady. And, Angel, I believe your name is, we will talk later also." He smiles a little, but visibly pales.

Giles thinks, "Drusilla is sane, three vampires are alive. What next? Naruto still has the Nine Tailed Fox?" He stops and slowly turns to Andrew. Out loud, he says, "What did you go to Halloween as?"

"Um..Naruto," replies Andrew. "Why?"

"Do you still have 'It'?" Giles asks.

"It?" Andrew says with a confused look on his face before smiling. "Oh yeah! Yes, I still have it." Giles' glasses break in half with a loud snap. He tosses his broken glasses onto the table absently, his face white from what Andrew said.

"Are you sure?" Giles says slowly.

Andrew raises an eyebrow, "It's sort of hard to be uncertain about this kind of thing, Pervy Sage." Giles' eye twitches but he doesn't say anything.

"What is 'it'?" Willow inquires.

Xander states calmly, "The Nine Tailed Fox."

"But I thought the Fourth Hokage defeated the fox!" exclaims Willow.

Giles sighs, "He did defeat it, but no mere human can kill it. So, he did the only thing he could. He sealed it inside a newborn baby, who was Naruto, now Andrew."

"Why didn't you ever tell us about it?" she screams at Andrew.

He scratches the back of his head nervously, "I guess I never got around to it."

"He's the jailer of the Kyuubi. He's not the demon himself," Giles points out quickly.

Willow glares at him, "Do you think I'm so stupid that I can't tell the difference?"

Angel murmurs, rolling his eye, "You never know."

Joyce gets flashes of the previous night and says, "If he still has the Fox, than," she looks over at Oz and Kendra. They both nod.

"Oh dear," Giles mutters. "This is going to be a long day."

"Why is it going to be a long day? What do they have?" Harmony asks, her hair in a ponytail.

Giles explains, "Andrew has the Nine Tailed Fox sealed inside of him, the other young man has the One Tailed Raccoon, and the young lady has the Two Tailed Cat."

Sand oozes from the gourd on Oz's back and forms a small hand that waves at them before retreating back into the container. Xander gazes at the gourd, "Okay, that was a little creepy."

Giles looks at Kendra, "Excuse me, young lady, but what is your name? I don't recognize you from the school."

"I'm not from the school," Kendra says, her accent fading on and off as she talks. "I am Kendra the Vampire Slayer."

Buffy looks surprised, "But I'm the Vampire Slayer! There can only be one at a time!"

Xander frowns, "Hey, Buffy, remember the incident with the Master? I had to give you CPR to revive you." Angel scowls. "But you were technically dead."

Joyce exclaims, "You were a Vampire Slayer? You died? Buffy, we are definitely having a long talk when we get home!"

Buffy sighs, "Yes, mom."

Giles sits at the table, "What were you doing here?"

"I was sent here by my Watcher to stop a great evil from rising," she replies.

Giles looks at Warren suspiciously. Warren shrugs, "What?"

"The only great evil I can think of other than the tailed demons would be Orochimaru," Giles states.

Faith glares at Warren dangerously, fingering a kunai. "Do you still have the urge to take over the world?"

Warren notices the kunai and shakes his head quickly. "Of course not! I'll probably have nightmares from that guy being in my head!"

Andrew and Jonathan lean closer to him, "Are you sure?" they say simultaneously.

"Positive!" Warren answers. "Though controlling snakes was sort of cool…" They all glare at him. "But not that cool! If I had known what would happen, I would have chosen someone else to go as!" Jonathan and Andrew scoff but nobody pays attention to them. "It's true! I would have! The guy, while a genius, was creepy!"

The librarian nods, "Good. Back to what we were saying, are there any other physical changes?"

Kendra raises her hand and Giles nods to her. "Well," she says, "My skin and hair are different."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asks.

"I used to be black with dark hair," Kendra explains. They look at her light brown hair and lighter skin.

"I see," says Giles. "Any others?"

Faith rubs her neck slightly and says, "I still have the curse mark, though it's not as strong as it used to be."

"I have it too," Xander adds.

Giles switches to Jiraiya mode and replies, "We'll take a look at those later." He looks at the others, "Are there any others?" They shake their head. "Okay then, what about abilities? The most obvious would be the eye bloodlines and the demons."

Joyce smiles sheepishly, "I still have Tsunade's strength and memories. I accidentally crushed the bathroom door handle this morning."

Water floats from the cup that Miss Calendar's holding. It floats to Drusilla, who forms it into a flower and freezes it. She plucks it out of the air and smiles happily. "You kept Haku's abilities," Giles states. "Okay, that covers the abilities, I think. Are there any other strange side affects?"

"Something is off about me," Faith says, "I have even more strength than Anko ever did."

"What do you mean?" Giles inquires with a frown.

"I smashed my alarm clock this morning without using any chakra," she states. Buffy's eyes widen, realizing what it might be.

"We'll look into that," Giles replies.

They go around the room, stating the abilities that they kept. Giles says slowly, "Well, we seem to have kept everything from the costumes."

Cordelia asks, "So why didn't this happen to anyone else? All the other kids seem to be normal."

Giles goes into the spiel about the world being older than they think, how demons roamed the world, and how Sunnydale is built on top of a Hellmouth. Finally, he comes to the end and says, "Chaos energy is unpredictable at best. The backlash of chaos energy surrounding the shop might have changed us permanently."

"I think it might have come from the statue when Harmony broke it," Angel inserts thoughtfully.

Dawn says quietly, "I saw a flash of light before waking up as myself again."

Jonathan nods, "I did as well. That might have been the backlash."

"Possibly," Giles admits.

Jonathan frowns, "You mentioned something about a champion being created. Is it the Vampire Slayer that was mentioned earlier?"

"The vampire slayer is the champion?" Joyce asks with deceptive calmness. "On second thought, let's talk about it now."

Buffy smiles sweetly and turns to Giles, "You're the expert."

The mother's gaze redirects to the Watcher, who gulps and wishes he were able to clean his glasses. "Well, actually, we have no idea how the next Vampire Slayer is chosen. All we know is that when one dies, the next one is chosen."

"And how do you know so much about it, Mr. Giles?" Joyce asks with the same calmness as before.

"I'm her Watcher, meaning I train her to fight the vampires and demons," he explains. The air temperature drops in the room.

Joyce stares at him. "Really? So you are telling me that you are training my daughter to go fight vampires and demons on her own?"

"Um…yes?" Giles manages to say. "But, she has no choice in the matter! As a vampire slayer, she has the instinctive urge to kill vampires and demons. It's better to be prepared than their next meal. Also, once she was chosen, she had a large target painted on her by the undead. They would have tracked her down eventually," Giles finishes. Joyce relaxes slightly, much to his relief. Giles has flashbacks of Tsunade's strength when she gets angry and winces at a few of the memories.

"So what do we do now?" Larry asks with his arms crossed, two wrapped bundle next to his chair.

Giles states, "You can go back to your normal lives with your new abilities and imagine as if nothing happened, or you can help defend Sunnydale against the forces of the night."

Jonathan leans back in his chair, "I for one will fight. Buffy has been fighting alone long enough to protect us."

Xander scowls, "And what are we? Chopped liver? We were the Slayer Support Team!"

Cordelia snorts, "Yeah, I'll stick with you being chopped liver."

Willow starts to rise from her chair, but Miss Calendar pushes her back to her seat. "Down girl!" Andrew notices her fists are clenched and scoots his chair away as much as he can. Cordelia fingers her pouch of shuriken and kunai silently.

Miss Calendar glances at the two girls, "Now, let's calm down, ladies." They glare at each other but remain silent. She sighs, "Good enough for now."

Andrew and Warren exchange glances and look at Jonathan. "If he's in, we're in," Warren announces.

Spike and Drusilla whisper to each other and seem to come to a decision. "I guess we're in too, for now," Spike calls. "But if you cross us, we'll go missing nin on your hides!"

Angel looks skeptical, "Why would you help us?"

"Because, Daddy," Drusilla snaps, "Naruto is a decent kid. Someone has to look after him and make sure you all don't exploit him!"

"We would never exploit him!" Angel growls. "And I am not your daddy. You are human again." Drusilla pouts a little and snuggles against Spike.

"Ah, look what you did, Big Poof!" Spike frowns. "You made her pout! Stupid bugger. And we have no guarantees that you wouldn't exploit the kid. Ninja are sneaky, underhanded, and have no morals."

"We are ninja of the leaf!" Joyce says. "We have morals, unlike the ninja of the mist."

Buffy looks at her mom with a raised eyebrow, "And the ninja of the sand! We have morals too!" Larry and Oz nod in agreement, the sand churning in the gourd noisily.

Giles steps in quickly, "Anyways, before this gets out of hand, can I have a raise of hands of those willing to help fight?" Every hand raises except Cordelia and Harmony.

"What?" Harmony says when everyone stares at them. The two popular girls sigh and raise their hands.

Cordelia grumbles, "I guess we're in too. Besides, I doubt I could sleep at night, knowing what is going on and not helping. I know Tenten wouldn't shirk her responsibilities like that."

Harmony nods quickly, "Me either!" Cordelia hides a grimace and smiles anyways. The blonde notices it. "It's true! Ino would never abandon her friends and comrades."

Xander mutters to Willow, "Talk about big changes! She knows the meaning of comrade." Harmony glares at Xander dangerously.

"If you weren't so cute, I would make you dance around like a little girl on the table!" Harmony answers. She pauses as she realizes what she just said and turns beet red. "I did not just say that! There is no way that Xander Harris is cute, have strong muscles, dreamy eyes, and…I'll shut up now." She shrinks back into her chair. "Stupid Sasuke impersonator," she mutters.

Willow looks her best friend over and starts thinking about what Harmony said. Her eyes widen and she quickly looks away, blushing badly. "Is something wrong, Wills?" Xander asks with concern.

"No, nothing!" she replies, still looking away.

Buffy exclaims, "While we're on the subject of helping, who wants to go on patrol with me tonight?"

Warren says, "Not tonight. I want to rest and go over all the information I learned during Halloween." Everyone starts looking at each other curiously.

"I'll go!" Xander says enthusiastically, glad to finally be able to help his friends.

Tara nods and mutters just loud enough for them to hear, "I'll be there."

Spike inserts, "We'll watch your back tonight."

Buffy glances at them suspiciously and says, "Somehow, I'm not reassured, but if you do, you had better make sure nothing happens to us."

"The big bad Slayer worried?" Drusilla smirks.

"Not as much as you should be," Buffy replies with a smile.

Kendra says, "I'll go, since I am the Vampire Slayer, after all."

"So will I," Joyce states. "No complaining, Buffy," she says when her daughter starts to say something. "It's about time I became more involved in your extracurricular activities."

Buffy thinks silently, "Oh great, an overprotective mother on patrol." She inwardly smirks, "Those vampires are so dead."

Willow glances at Xander discreetly and thinks, "Well…it'll give us some time to spend with him and adjust to the changes." Inner Willow shouts, "Chaa! We will have time alone with him!" Willow quickly answers herself nervously, "We don't want that!" Inner Willow yells, "Yes we do!" Willow raises her hand slowly and says, "I'll go on patrol!" She glances at her friend again, blushing badly, but Xander doesn't seem to notice.

Harmony notices Willow's glancing and frowns. She thinks silently, "What does Willow-forehead think she's doing? She's trying to steal Xander from—hold on a second! This is Xander we are talking about! There is no way I'm interested in that lowly cute hunk of—no! This is Xander! I don't like him! He isn't even attractive, despite his big, strong muscles, his mysterious eyes—What am I doing looking at his eyes?" Harmony raises her hand quickly, "I volunteer!" Buffy notices the silent rivalry between the two girls and just rolls her eyes.

Giles smiles at the number of volunteers, "That will be enough for now. Over the next few days, I'll be making a schedule for all of you for patrol times and assigned squads. Those that volunteered, meet here tonight at 8:30 for your squad assignments. You're dismissed." He stifles a groan as he ponders silently, "Now how to deal with the Council. Maybe Gamabunta would be interested in peaceful negotiations with those arrogant pincushions." He rubs his jaw thoughtfully.

As everyone starts to leave, Willow asks Xander hesitantly, "Um…Xander, do you think we could go out sometime?"

Flashbacks run through his mind of Sakura and Willow. He thinks about it and mutters, "I'll think about it." He gives her a very Xanderish smile and walks away.

Harmony shouts, "What do you think you're doing, Forehead?"

"None of your business, Pig!" Willow retorts heatedly. Giles and Buffy just stare at the two girls. "I've been Xander's friend ever since kindergarten! You haven't been interested in him until he turned into Sasuke, so stay away from him!"

Harmony sneers, "As far as I know, he's not dating anyone. Therefore, he's up for grabs!" Xander pauses in the doorway and thinks, "Up for grabs? I do not want to be grabbed!" He sprints to the nearest window and jumps out of sight. "Look what you did, Forehead! You scared him off!"

"I scared him off?" yells Willow. Andrew starts getting déjà fu from the scene. They continue yelling at each other and end up stomping away.

Andrew approaches Willow and says enthusiastically, "Well, if you aren't going to go out with him, maybe you want to—"

"No," deadpans Willow while forcing her hand to stay by her side. "Not in a million years, Andrew."

Andrew smirks, "Well, how about after a million years is up?" The death glare he receives makes him shiver and he finishes, "I guess not."

As Andrew walks out the door, Dawn watches him, poking her fingers together nervously. Joyce says from behind her, "Dawn, about that Andrew guy…"

"There's nothing between us!" Dawn squeaks hurriedly.

Joyce smirks and nods, "Keep it that way."


	12. Chapter 12

Epilogue

**That Night:**

A vampire chases after someone. He thinks about how stupid this person is, walking through Sunnydale's graveyard at night. "This victim has some stamina!" he growls as he runs. A few more vampires notice the person running away and give chase. The vampire notices the others and growls, "I hate sharing! I guess I'll just have to take him down first!"

The person runs down an alley that the vampire knows for a fact is a dead end. He beats the others and growls, "I got you now!"

An arrogant smirk crosses the person's features. "No, I got you." The vampire tilts his head in confusion as the person's hands start making weird signs. Their lungs expand and he hears, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" The other vampires push past him and scream as they all explode into flames. Once the fire dies out, Xander observes his handiwork with satisfaction.

Buffy drops from the roof with her fan in hand. "The plan was for you to lure them here, than we both wipe them out! You didn't leave any for me!" she protests.

He lowers his hand from his mouth and dusts off any ash, "Sorry, Buffy. I got carried away. You get the next batch."

She grins, "Good!" Her fan slides back into its holster, and they take off to the next section of town.

**Elsewhere in Sunnydale:**

"I can't believe I got stuck with you! This is so lame!" Harmony shrieks.

Willow retorts, "I know! You've already said that about twenty times!"

"If you hadn't insisted so loudly about going with Xander, then we wouldn't be in this predicament!" Harmony screams in her face.

Willow pushes her back, "I remember it differently, Pig! You were the one insisting to be with Xander! I deserve to be with him! I've been his friend his entire life!"

A vampire notices their loud bickering and laughs quietly to himself at the apparently easy kill. He sneaks closer to them and Willow's hand snaps back, turning him to dust instantly as his heart is pulverized by the stake in her hand. "Stay away from Xander!" she yells back at Harmony, barely noticing that she dusted the vampire.

"Over my dead body, Forehead!" Harmony snaps.

"You're getting the idea!" Willow says, pouncing on Harmony. They yank at each other's hair and punch each other, rolling around in the street. They are surrounded by more piles of dust as they go from any vampires stupid enough to try to interrupt their fight.

**Southern Sunnydale:**

A fist impacts a vampire's face, sending the head flying which turning to dust in midair. The body follows suit into a dusty pile. "Wow, this is what my daughter's been fighting for all this time?" Joyce says, dusting off her fist. "These guys are wimps!"

Spike scowls, "These are new, weaker vampires. The Slayer would've taken them out easily too. It's the older ones like I used to be that you should look out for!" He sheathes his huge sword, stepping over the piles of dust surrounding him.

Kendra slips a dusty kunai into her pounce and nods in agreement. "Very true, Joyce. These are some of the weakest vampires there are."

The former vampire glares at Joyce, "Call off your Anbu. I don't like the feeling that I'm being watched."

"You first," she responds calmly. He frowns and snaps his fingers. Drusilla appears next to him with her scarred Anbu mask on.

Joyce nods and Tara appears behind her on one knee. "I apologize for being noticed, Lady Joyce," Tara says quietly.

The older woman keeps watching Spike warily, "Just Joyce, Tara. Stand up." Tara and Drusilla exchange icy stares when she stands. "So why are you here instead of your assigned area?"

Tara states, "There weren't enough vampires to hold our attention. I was also concerned about your safety, La—Joyce. I don't trust Missing nins." Spike glares at her, but she easily matches his killer intent.

_Flashback:_

The vampire hums as he walks down the street lazily on his way to meet his friend. The friend waves as they near each other. They both stop in midstep as Tara appears behind the first vampire. She clicks her sword into the sheath and smirks, "Too easy."

Drusilla appears opposite of her, "Far too easy." Both vampires in the street collapse into dust. Sebons clatter onto the street near the second vampire. "There isn't much activity here."

"No, there isn't," Tara agrees reluctantly, avoiding Drusilla's gaze. "Perhaps we should check on the others?" Drusilla nods and they both disappear.

_End Flashback_

Joyce raises an eyebrow and orders, "Make another sweep of the area. When you finish, you are free to go home." Both disappear again. "They'll be back?" Joyce says idly.

Spike confirms, "Yeah, they'll be back."

**Unknown location:**

In a dark room, the computer monitor shines. Ethan taps on the mouse and mutters darkly, "They will suffer for that humiliation!" Names and costumes scroll down on the bright screen. "Normal tricks won't work on them now, but the devil is in the details."

A name catches his attention. He reads out loud: "Madara Uchiha." A grin slowly crosses his face.

**Warren's House, Ten Minutes After He is Asleep:**

The dark-haired boy's eyes snap open and quickly narrow into yellow slits. He sits up in bed and flexes his hands almost experimentally. Warren hisses, "It worked!"

**The End?**

**If you want the story to continue in a sequel, review accordingly.**


	13. Chapter 13

Sequel to Shinobi Hallloween is up! It's called The Hidden Hand.

Enjoy!


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